A whole new begining
by MTrenchRox
Summary: After the second Titan War, Percy, Nico and Thalia are taken by their parents to train. For what? The demi-gods don't know. But when Percy is taken to Tartarus for revenge, it becomes the utimate quest to save Olympus.
1. Prolouge

Prolouge

To say that he was happy was a lie. Perseus Jackson was beyond happy, and for a good reason. His best friend, Annabeth Chase stood beside him, along with his cousins Nico di Angelo and Thalia Grace, and all the other people he had met over the past seven years of knowing he was a half-blood.

Yup, you heard me. Half-blood.

Half God and half mortal, Demi-Gods. The children of the Greek Gods. In fact, the whole room Perseus was standing in was filled with the Gods children, waiting for The Gods themselves.

Perseus was a son of Poseidon, the only one in a long time. Why?

There had been an oath, sworn on the river Styx by Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, the Big Three to never have demi-god children ever again, after the second world war. Together they had decided that their mortal children where to powerful, and could overpower them, much like their father, Kronos.

Of course, the Gods never keep their promises. Zeus, god of the sky, was the first to cave, falling for an eighties movie star, Sandra Grace. Together, they had a little girl named Thalia, whom Sandra named after another one of Zeus's daughters.

Then was Poseidon, go of the sea, with a woman named Sally Jackson.

And that leaves Hades, god of the Underworld. Surprisingly, he never really broke the oath. His two children, ten and twelve at the time, were born before the oath was made, sometime during the 1930's. But of course, when Zeus found out about them, he got angry, a killed Maria di Angelo, the mother of the two and the love of Hades's life.

Hades, heartbroken, had sent his children to the Lotus hotel, where they would never grow old, so they could be released when they would safe, and not have missed most of their lives.

The river Styx, the river the swore on, takes oaths very seriously. The young daughter of Zeus was killed by a monster when traveling to camp Half-Blood when she was twelve, the only safe place for demi-gods. Zeus took pity on his deceased daughter and turned her into a pine tree on Half -Blood hill, so she could watch over all demi-gods who came to camp.

Perseus was followed by many monsters, but managed to reach Camp Half-blood. And, before we go any further into this story, let me tell you about his life, leading up to him standing with Annabeth.

Most demi-gods have protectors, satyrs who befriend them so that they can protect them from monsters so that they can reach camp. Perseus's protecter was a satyr named Grover.

Now Grover was only a junior protector, and Perseus was his second and last chance to become a senior protector, because of what had happened the first time. Perseus was twelve.

Perseus's mother, Sally, knew that he was a demi-god, but couldn't tell him about his father or his heritage, because the more you know about the Greek world, the more monsters come after you and Sally wanted to protect Perseus as much as Grover. It was her who drove the two of them to Camp Half-blood.

Sally was taken by the Minotaur and taken to Hades before Perseus reached the camps boundary line as a bargaining chip . Perseus killed the Minotaur.

At camp, Perseus was devastated by the loss of his mother. He met a daughter of Athena, Annabeth, who was his age, and a son of Hermes, Luke, who was about nineteen. He had also been claimed as a son of Poseidon.

While that had been happening, a fight had broken out between Zeus and Poseidon. Zeus was accusing Poseidon of stealing his master bolt, the source of all his power. While the gods could not take each others property, due to ancient laws, their children can.

Zeus was positive the Perseus had stolen the bolt and taken it to Hades.

When Perseus heard about this at camp, he was confused, he had never met his father before, nor Hades. Perseus was given a quest to go to the Underworld and retrieve the bolt, or the whole world would be destroyed by the war between Zeus and Poseidon.

Perseus agrees to the quest, but not to save the world, to save his mother.

Perseus succeeds in getting to the Underworld, only to realize that the bolt had been in the shield he had been carrying. A shield given to him by Luke.

Perseus never thought much about how the bolt got there, but raced to Olympus to deliver the bolt to Zeus.

All was happy. Hades returned Sally to the land of the living, and Zeus was grateful to Perseus.

It wasn't until Perseus was back at Camp when the trouble started.

Perseus met with Luke, who explained that it have been him who had put the bolt in the shield so Perseus would take it to Hades. Luke wanter a war between the gods.

Luke was mad at the gods because they ignored their children. Luke wanted revenge.

The next summer, when Perseus returned to camp, he found out that Thalia's tree had been poisned by Luke, whp had joined Kronos and the titans. He went on a quest with Clarisse La rue, daughter of Ares, Annabeth, and his cyclopes half-brother, Tyson to get the golden fleece, the only objet that could save the tree.

It was on this quest where he leaned that Annabeth had come to Camp with Thalia and Luke, and Grover had been their protector. Annabeth had been seven, Thalia, twelve and Luke, fourteen.

Perseus and his friends get the fleece and return to Camp to put the fleece on the great pine tree. But the fleece not only healed the tree, it brought Thalia Grace back to life. She had aged in her tree, but slowly, so had only gained three years instead of six.

That winter, the children of Hades, Nico and Bianca, were rescued by their father because he wanted one of his children to be the child in the prophecy that had been set forth many years ago, and only started, when all four of the Big Three kids were alive at the same time. That winter, Bianca was killed. Blaming Perseus, Nico left. Thalia joined the Immortal Hunters of Artemis the day before her sixteenth birthday, so that she would stay fifteen forever, and the prophecy would not be hers.

During the next summer, a group of demi-gods went into the Labyrinth to slow down Kronos's army, with the help of a mortal who the gift to see throught the mist, a magical protection causing mortals to see monsters as something different, to keep the Greek world safe. Sally also had this gift. The mortal's name was Rachel Dare. Nico came back, and helped, forgiving Perseus. Kronos went into Luke's body, using him as a host.

Many were lost in the battle of the Labyrinth.

The summer after that, a week before Perseus was to turn sixteen, he heard the full prophecy.

_A half-blood of the eldest gods_

_shall reach sixteen against all odds_

_and see the world in endless sleep_

_hero's blade cursed soul shall reap_

_a single choice shall end his days_

_Olympus to preserve or raise_

The god of dreams put all of Manhattan to sleep, so no mortals would be harmed during the war.

Kronos was about to destroy Olympus when Luke struggled, and turned to the good side in the end. Perseus gave Luke Annabeth's knife, the knife the Luke had given her, because it was the blade, and Luke was the hero. Luke killed himself, sending Kronos back down to Tartarus and saving Olympus.

And that's why all the demi-gods were gathered in the room. The room, actually, was the Throne Room on Olympus, on top of the Empire State Building. Waiting for the Gods to exit their meeting about the war and talk to them.

Annabeth nudged Perseus shoulder. "Percy?" she asked, calling him by his preferred nickname.

"Yeah?"

"What were you thinking about? You've been staring at that wall over there for like two minutes."

Percy looked to Annabeth. Gods, was she beautiful. Even sweaty and tired, with her arm in a sling and face covered in blood, Percy still thought she was more beautiful the Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

"Just about us." He blushed. "All of us. You, me, Thalia, Nico, you know."

She raised her eyebrows. "Yeah?"

"We've just been through a lot."

Annabeth sighed thoughtfully. "Sure have."

"Wonder what's taking so long?" Percy wondered.

"And how would you think I would know?"

Percy laughed. "Well, Mrs. Daughter of Athena..."

"Yes, Mr. Son of the Sea God?"

Next to them, Percy's cousin and Annabeth's best friend, Thalia, gagged. "This is disgusting. Could you guys be any more Girlfriend and Boyfriend?"

Percy blushed. He had never thought of Annabeth as his girlfriend.

Annabeth looked just as embarrassed, but covered it up with a sarcastic remark to Thalia.

"Oh, sorry, we would want little Mrs. Hunter of the virgin goddess to burst into flames."

Thalia scowled playfully. "Trust me, I'm speaking for everyone."

Annabeth narrowed her eyes. "Everyone?"

"Well, Nico at least," she said, gesturing to the black-clad thirteen year-old son of Hades standing beside Percy.

As if on cue, he gagged. "Ahhhhh! Cooties!"

Annabeth smiled "Percy?"

"Got it," said Percy, before kicking Nico in the leg.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

They smiled at each other. Thalia rolled her eyes, and was about to make another comment when fourteen twelve-foot-tall beings burst into the room.

**Okay, this is my first FanFic, so I'd like to hear your feedback. I should be updating again in about two or three days.**

**Thanks!**

Okay, this is my first FanFic, so I'd like to hear your feedback. I should be updating again in about two or three days.

Thanks!


	2. Chapter 1

Sorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrry! I've been soooooo busy that I totally forgot until I check my e-mail and had like fifty story updates and reviews.

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter One

The gods entered loudly, then looked at the demi-gods with a confusing glace, like they'd forgotten that they'd left their children there. With a shake of his head, Zeus ushered the gods into their seats.

They say down quickly, whispering softly in ancient Greek so fast that even those fluent couldn't understand.

Aphrodite had a nervous look on her face, even for a goddess. She licked her red lips and held her tongue with her teeth. Her french-tipped fingernails tapped against her throne rapidly, and both her husband and boyfriend were shooting her worried looks.

Poseidon's face, Annabeth remarked, was a blanket of concern. Now that she thought about it, Hades and Zeus had similar expressions.

She clicked her tongue against her teeth. Something was going on.

"Demi-gods!" boomed Zeus, and the half-bloods looked up with a start.

"We've received some important news," he continued distractedly, never taking his eyes off Thalia. The daughter of Zeus looked away uncomfortably, and Zeus continued. "The next great prophecy has been delivered by our new oracle."

Excited whispered filled the throne room. A new oracle? Next great prophecy? A few sighs were heard as well. Prophecies usually meant war.

Thalia spoke up. "Who is the new oracle?" she asked loudly, then cowered slightly, like she hadn't meant to actually speak without permission.

"Miss Rachel Dare," replied her father, and Annabeth saw Percy stiffen.

"What was the prophecy?" asked Percy cautiously.

"It is not important. We are taking matters into our own hands to prevent this disaster. If such an occasion occurs, we will let you all know."

The gods stood, and began to leave, but the demi-gods dared not move without permission.

"You may go. The camp vans are waiting downstairs to take you to camp," said Zeus.

The crowd of half-bloods go up in one fluid motion and began to exit the throne room.

"All except," said Poseidon, and the children of the gods stopped and turned to face the god of the sea. "You three." He pointed to Nico, Percy, and Thalia. The kids of the big three.

Nico and Thalia moved forward, but Percy held back around Annabeth. Quietly, he whispered into her ear: "I'll be back to camp soon, and we can sort out this whole 'Boyfriend, Girlfriend' thing."

He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

A gasp rose above the demi-gods, and the gods looked on, amusement clear on their faces.

"About time," yelled out Clarisse la Rue, daughter of Ares, and led a round of applause that echoed in the marble throne room. Annabeth and Percy both blushed deeply, before Percy turned and followed his cousins.

"Oh give it a rest," moaned Clarisse from in front of Annabeth when, for the fourth time during the hour bus trip back to camp, Annabeth touched her kiss-swollen lips and sighed happily.

Cass Summers, a thirteen-year-old daughter of Apollo, leaned forward from behind Annabeth and smiled. "Aw, come on. It's cute. And besides, you thought is was too, in the throne room."

"Speaking of the throne room," started Travis Stoll, son of Hermes, and in an instant, the van was filled with possible prophecy ideas. They were riding on what was considered the 'good' van, because it was driven by Argus, rather then one of the Harpies.

Conner, Travis's twin, came and leaned over Annabeth's seat with Cass. "I heard they're offering Percy and them off as sacrifice."

Annabeth narrowed her eyes. "And who told you that?"

"Travis. But I doubt it. Brian told me they were being trained as assassins. Personally, I prefer ninja's, but Travis is pretty set on his idea "

Annabeth looked over at Travis, who was getting shot down for the hundredth time by Katie Gardener, a sweet-minded daughter of Demeter.

"Aw, poor dude," said Conner.

"Yeah," scoffed Cass. "You're one to talk. I'm not sure how you found the time to ask me out during the war."

"Multitasking," shouted Katie, over the noise of the van.

"It's because I love you so," said Conner jokingly, puckering his lips and leaning in.

With a laugh, Cass avoided his lips and planted her own on the top of his head. "Never gonna happen, sweetie."

Annabeth smiled at Cass. Her real name was Cassandra, named after the famous seer, but she hated her full name. Cass was the only demi-god who had been at camp longer then Annabeth. She had been born there, and knew the place inside and out.


	3. Chapter 2

Paste your document her

PS- I wrote this whole song to Home by Phillip Phillips, like, ten times. I loved him on American Idol, and I love him still

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter Two

Annabeth kept herself busy for the next two days. She was teaching ancient Greek, taking extra archery classes taught by Cass, who squeezed them in between swordsmanship and scribbling song lyrics into a old leather-bound notebook.

She thought about Percy the whole time, even though that was what she was trying to avoid. The warmth of his kiss still lingered on her lips and she dreamed about him whenever she managed to catch some sleep. _Absence make the heart grow fonder,_ she found herself saying whenever she walked past cabin three.

They were putting up a lot of new cabins, as the gods had decided to include the minor gods and Hades and Hestia with cabins. The 'U' shape was now an 'O' thanks to Hades and Hestia joining on to the end close it off, and the minor god cabins were lining camp, giving it a barrier of low stone cabins.

Days at camp now were filled with goodbyes from summer-only campers and that end-of-summer feeling of love and laughter from friends and family. Summer was a good time for Half-bloods. They all wished it never would end.

Annabeth had to say good-bye to seven of her half-sibling, leaving only five in Athena cabin. Normally, three more would be staying, and another would be leaving, but two had be lost to what Conner jokingly called 'the dark side' and two had been lost in the battle of Manhattan.

Only a day after returning to camp, Rachel had found her and explained and apologized for everything before she left in a shiny limo that Annabeth had marveled at. Camp would have to survive without an oracle for the year, but the great prophecy was the only one on everyone's mind.

Cass was one of Annabeth's few friends that were staying at camp, and she was also the only one staying in Apollo cabin out of her five older brothers. Whenever one of her siblings left, she would sing a verse or two from Phillip Phillips 'Home', and give them a big hug. Cass was never one to be that sad or worried about things. Sometimes Annabeth wished she could be more like her.

Grover and Juniper were really getting along well, and secretly Annabeth envied them. She wanted her and Percy to be that close and cute and inseparable. These days, Annabeth thought, everyone she knew from her first couple of years at camp was dating someone or liking someone. Even Cass had a crush on Nico, something Annabeth was sure would never happen. Everything was changing. They were getting older.

Now, with a sigh, Annabeth dismissed her beginner Greek class and watched the young demi-gods exit the classroom. Slowly, she pulled out her dagger. She rubbed her thumb against the bronze metal and sighed. The pain was still fresh.

Carla, Annabeth's older sister, walked into the old classroom for the class she would teach ten minutes later with her head down, looking at marked Greek papers. She looked up and sighed. "Don't torture yourself."

Annabeth looked up and plastered a smile on her face that crumpled just as fast. "I'm sorry. I gotta let myself grieve."

Clara frowned. "In an empty classroom?"

"Hey. Where I grieve is my choice."

Clara raised her arms in defense. "Sorry. I just don't think that Percy would want to see you being all sad over a dead guy who you swore to him that you were over."

"Well, I'll stop being sad when he gets back."

"Makes sense," said Clara, arranging some papers for her advance Greek class. "When is he getting back anyway?"

Annabeth shrugged. "No idea. I haven't heard anything. And you know how easy it is to get stuff outta Chiron."

Clara laughed with her head back, showing off a new long white scar, thanks to a demi-god who had once been their brother.

"See you later," said Annabeth. "I'm gonna go grieve under Thalia's tree."

"Have fun," said Clara, her eyes trained on a stack of graded Greek essays.

Annabeth made her way through camp, but when she reached the big pine, she saw that she wasn't alone.

There sat Cassandra, guitar on her lap, her notebook on the grass beside her, pen in her mouth and she was leaning against the sleeping guard dragon like it was the most casual thing in the world. She would stop writing to wave good-bye to each half-blood that left.

"What are you doing?" asked Annabeth, hoping Cass wouldn't ask her the same question.

Cass sighed and pulled the pen out if her mouth. She tapped her lip with it. "I'm trying to write about this whole thing, but it's hard to write about war."

Annabeth sat down next to Cass. "Maybe you don't write about war. Write about feeling, relationships surviving through wars."

Cass grinned. "Good idea."

"Like you and Nico?" asked Annabeth jokingly, rubbing her shoulder against Cass's

"Oh, shut up," she said and looked down at her book, but Annabeth could see a hint of a blush creeping up her cheeks.

"Fine. Write about something else."

"I will. Hey, speaking of Nico, have you heard from him yet?"

"Nope. I've gotten asked that a lot thought. I haven't heard from any of them."

"Don't worry. I bet they'll be back soon."

The two demi-gods fell into comfortable silence. The only noise was the clank of swords in the background, a few lone birds, and the scratch of Cass's pen on worn paper.

After a moment, Cass strummed her guitar. "Okay. What do you think of this? _Separated evermore, the boundarys we have to explore. Wander alone forever, we can't fight the weather-"_

"Weather?"

"Well, I don't know. I can sing no problem. Rhyming is more of Brian's thing."

Annabeth nodded. "Well, if it helps, it was good. A little depressing, but good."

"Well... that's life."

e...


	4. Chapter 3

Thanks to kgirl98, my first reviewer. I want to get to at least ten more before I publish the next chapter

Reviews make me happy, and want to write.

Any ideas or characters you want my to include are welcome.

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A Whole New Beginning

Chapter Three

Percy Jackson had nothing to do. He was done training for the day, and was just sitting on the bed in his room.

His training was going well, he thought, and while a small part of him wondered what he was doing training after the war was over, most of him just wanted to train as hard as he could so he could get back to Annabeth.

Slowly, he drifted off to sleep, just long enough for two men dressed in black to take him away.

Thalia Grace was training. She didn't know why, but she was. She was positive she was getting marked on it -why else would the gods want her to train on Olympus- so Thalia worked her ass off.

She had been given a new bow set, along with a never-ending supply of arrows for her trainer, Josh. He'd said they'd been from her father. She was getting better everyday.

Every target was a bulls-eye, and every shot made her feel like she was the queen of the world. Well, princess, anyway.

Nico rolled his shoulders back and exhaled. He held his prized silver sword out in front of him and turned it, so it caught the light from the lamp on the wall and reflected it on to the ceiling. He swung the sword and the bean of light moved from one corner of the roof to another.

Nico hadn't seen Thalia or Percy for a week, since they were first brought out of the throne room. They had each been led to their own rooms and left there.

He had a trainer, Henry, and he was sure his cousins did too. He fought for hours on end, and he had no idea why. He was currently waiting for him to arrive, so that they could start day eight of training.

Nico hadn't seen his father either, or any of the gods. He wondered sometimes is they were being trapped there, but he shook that thought off and trained to keep his mind off things, like what they were doing, the Titan war, and the prophecy.

All of the sudden, a loud siren went off. Nico couldn't tell whether the alarm was in the whole building or just in his room. The room he was in flashed red. There was a loud click, and the only door in there that was always locked swung open.

Nico heard footsteps running down the hallway, and then a black head came in the door, blue eyes flashing worriedly. Then the whole body appeared, wearing skinny jeans and a black leather jacket.

"What's going on?" whispered Thalia, motioning for Nico to follow her. "I was training with Josh, and then the siren went off and he left just like that."

"I don't know."

"Have you seen Percy?" asked Thalia, as they came to a fork in the hall. She looked both ways then chose the left path.

"No. You?"

Thalia shook her head slowly and looked her little cousin in the eye. "Somethings going on here."

Above them, red flashed on the sirens on the walls, casting strange shadows over the cousins.

"I could tell," replied Nico. "Do people have nothing better to do then screw with us?"

"Obviously not. I swear, my tombstone's gonna read 'Hated by the Fates'," said Thalia as she navigated the corridors of the building on Olympus with Nico.

Cass took a deep breath as Annabeth tossed her knife again. Every time, it landed in the same spot of wood on her bed. The light thunking noise every dozen seconds was driving her crazy.

As Annabeth lined up her next shot with a squint, Cass gently placed her hand on Annabeth's shoulder. She stopped and looked at Cass.

"What?"

"Annabeth, I sorry Percy hasn't come back yet, and I know it's been a week, but if you do that one more time, you won't have a hand to throw with."

Slowly, Cass eased the small bronze dagger from Annabeth's hand, and led her to her bed in Athena cabin. Cass sat down slowly beside her and rubbed her back.

Cass placed the dagger beside her, frowning at it slightly. Everyone at camp knew about this dagger, the one in the possession of the best friend of the prophecy. The cursed dagger.

"He'll be back soon," Cass said to Annabeth softly, not really knowing what else to say.

"I know," whispered Annabeth after a moment. "But I'm just worried."

"About the prophecy?" asked Cass slowly.

"Yeah. And everything. I mean, when was the last time the gods asked demi-gods to stay up on Olympus?"

"That's more your kinda info," said Base, but Annabeth was beyond listening to anyone. Cass sat back a bit and let her rant.

"Why do the gods want them? What do they want with them? It's just so frustrating. It's been a week, a we've heard nothing. Phoebe even IM'd me asking if Thalia was back. Even the Hunters are worried, and if Phoebe was wondering, that means Lady Artemis isn't spilling."

"I-i-i I don't know," said Cass nervously, looking from the large books on the walls, to the blueprints and notebooks to the oak floor. Anything to avoid Annabeth's eye.

The door to Athena cabin burst open, and Malcolm, Annabeth's half-brother, ran in, completely out of breath. "You guys better come quick."

Annabeth sat up and wiped at her tears with the hem of her camp shirt. "What is it Malcolm?"

"The gods are here, with Thalia and Nico. I'm supposed to get everyone."


	5. Chapter 4

Thank you to all of my wonderful readers and reviewers.

My main goal for Fanfiction is to have my work read and admired,

and everyone here reading this now is helping me.

Please review and read and enjoy.

PS- please take the poll on my profile

PPS-thank you so much for spending time to read my work and review.

PPS- so I didn't get my ten reviews. I wanted to show everyone this chapter, the longest so far and my fave.

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter Four

The door of the big house and the walls of the rec room were crowded with demi-gods, but Annabeth, Malcolm and Cass managed to push their way through.

Sitting at the pool table were all the heads of the cabin or the Olympians, with five seats vacant. One for Annabeth, as head of Athena cabin, same with Thalia, Percy, and Nico, and one for Cass, who was filling in for her older brother. There, in the center of the room, were the gods, Nico and Thalia. Annabeth's heartbeat quickened: Where was Percy?

She looked over and saw Cass give Nico a small wave, witch he returned slowly with a confused look on his face.

Thalia saw Annabeth, and her face lit up. "Thank the Gods," she exclaimed as she rushed towards her best-friend and embraced her.

"What happened?" asked Annabeth quickly.

Thalia blinked, and when her electric blue eyes opened again, they were shiny with tears. "I don't know. The alarm went off, and we found the throne room, and the gods were there, and Percy wasn't there and they couldn't find him, and, and-"

Annabeth put a reassuring hand on Thalia's shoulder. "Breath."

Thalia took a deep breath and smiled softly. "Thanks."

Cass, Annabeth and Thalia all sat down on the stools placed around the pool table, and Nico joined them.

Before the gods began to talk, Nico leaned across the pool table to where Cass sat. "Who are you?" he asked her.

Cass blushed bright red. "Cass. Cass Summers. Apollo. I know who you are. Everyone does." Then she bit her tongue and stopped talking.

Nico gave a small smile and nodded. Annabeth watched with a small grin of amusement for a moment, but then her mind went right back to Percy.

Zeus cleared his throat. "A week ago yesterday, the war ended."

There was general nodding around the rec room and confused glances. They all already knew that. They'd been there.

"I'm sure you all remember what I said in the throne room," continued Zeus.

Thalia scoffed. "Of course we do. You said there was a prophecy and then you took three of us and then did nothing. By the way, thanks for that."

Zeus didn't say anything to Thalia. Instead, he continued as if she'd never said anything. "We said we would take care of it. We took Thalia, Nico and Perseus to train for fear of one of them being taken. And one of them was."

Poseidon shook slightly, and Thalia was sure she'd hear about a small earthquake in Japan the next morning.

Annabeth breathing was shallow. "Who took Percy?"

Athena spoke up. "Hades has had some spies in Tartarus. We knew he wouldn't stay down for long, but this is fast even for him."

Shyly, Cass raised her hand. Athena spotted her, and nodded.

"So, you mean, Kronos is back?"

"No, not yet. But he will be. That is why he took Mr. Jackson," explained Athena and Poseidon flinched.

A small sob escaped Annabeth's lips and Thalia inhaled deeply. "It's Luke all over again," sighed Thalia with a hardened expression on her face. "Great, just what we needed."

Hermes hardened a little, then spoke. "Not exactly like Luke."

"With Luke," said Athena, "Kronos took over his body. But now he wants something a lot more permanent, something that can't be killed off as easily. He plans on not taking Percy's body, but his soul."

Horrified gasps and yells followed Athena's statement, but Annabeth and Thalia shushed them all, tears in their eyes. "His soul?" asked Annabeth, her voice thick and sad.

"Yes," said Athena, emotionless. The goddess swore she wouldn't let anyone she that she was sad about Poseidon's son. "Once Percy is weak enough, Kronos can take his soul, leaving an empty shell of a body."

Conner whistled, and Cass slapped him over the head with the back of her hand.

"Where is Percy?" asked Travis.

"Tartarus," replied Hades, his voice smooth and sophisticated and rich sounding, like he had more money then anyone in the world. And it was true: he was the god of riches.

"He's gonna die down there," said Travis under his breath, and Cass hit him as well.

"It's impossible for him to survive down there," said Travis in defense.

"Hello? We're impossible," countered Thalia.

Cass gave a small half-smile. "We should fix that. _Dear Impossible. Screw you. The gods exist. Love from, the demi-gods at Camp Half-Blood._ How's that?"

"Will you guys stop?" burst out Annabeth. Two lines trailed down her face, the unmistakable scar of tears.

"Sorry," said Cass immediately.

"Pull yourself together, Annie. He's not dead yet," said Thalia and Annabeth sniffed.

"Sorry," apologized Thalia. "I forgot that you weren't a fan of tough love."

Annabeth looked up at her with a smile on her face, not tears. "It's not that. It's just that myself does not need pulling together."

"Beautifully constructed sentence, really. Top notch," said Nico.

No one spoke, and it was quiet for a moment, then Katie broke the silence. "What about the prophecy?"

Apollo looked to his father, Zeus, who nodded. Apollo cleared his throat and then recited the prophecy:

"_Son of the dead, daughters of sky, smarts, and sun, down to the pit,_

_Love will take a endless hit._

_Separated evermore,_

_Realm of Hades to explore._

_Dead and alive, unite together,_

_Search alone, in the nether._

_The sea cannot be restrained,_

_Find where it is being contained._

_On the eve of rising moon,_

_The song will sing an hopeful tune_

_Try they will, but fail they must,_

_The gods will die, there is no trust."_

Annabeth ran her tongue along her teeth slowly. "Wow."

"My thoughts exactly," said Thalia, staring at Apollo, like he was responsible for the words that had just come from his mouth. And in a way he was.

"So we're going to Tartarus?" asked Nico. "Me, Thals, Annabeth and Cass?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up there, Death Breath," said Cass. "Why me? Why Annabeth?"

"Well, me and Thals are the only kids of 'sky' and 'dead'. Annabeth is the daughter of Athena, and had the best relationship with Percy, so that makes sense, and you're the only daughter of Apollo. It makes sense. And Death-Breath? Really?"

"Smartest thing you've ever said," commented Thalia.

"What's the rising moon?" asked Cass, thinking back to the prophecy.

The gods faces darkened. Zeus started. "The night of the rising moon was a legend of the worlds biggest battle."

"Was that why you were so worried when you heard the prophecy?"

"Yes and no," said Athena. "I'm sure you've all heard of the supposed 'end of the world'."

"The day the Mayan calendar ends. The winter solstice," sniffed Annabeth. "The whole apocalypse thing."

"Am I the only one who thinks that could happen?" asked Travis. "I mean, we're kids of gods. The world ending would not be the strangest thing."

"Exactly," said Apollo. "The was a prophecy a couple thousand years ago from the Mayan gods that stated the end of the world would be when the gods died, on the night of the rising moon. Why it was called that, we have no idea. All other gods have died out except for the Greek one. When we die, the world will end."

"But you can't die," said Cass nervously to her father.

"According to this new prophecy," said Poseidon, "We can."

"But, the winter solstice isn't for months," said Clarisse.

"We're not sure how it's going to work," said Hades slowly. "But there will be another war, bigger and badder then the last."

Cass swallowed. "After the quest?"

Hades nodded. "After the quest."

"The four of you will need to start as soon as possible," said Poseidon. "We need to find Percy as quickly as we can."

"Don't think we don't know that," said Annabeth. "He means just as much to us as he does to you. Maybe more. You may be his father, but we're all his best-friends, and we'll do anything for him, witch is more then I can say for you."

Poseidon nodded to Annabeth, surprising everyone. "You're right. You're absolutely right. You need to find him more then I do. But we will all be counting on you. The whole world depends on you four. This is important."

"Got it," nodded Thalia, a slight look of fear on her pale, freckled face.

Annabeth sighed and nodded, as did Nico.

"Don't worry," said Cass to Poseidon. "I won't let you down. _We_ won't. I'm gonna try my best."

Poseidon gave the young daughter of Apollo and small smile. "I know you will."


	6. Chapter 5

Thank you to everyone to reviewed.

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Thanks!

Thanks to 'I am Loki daughter of mania' for her review.

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter Five

After the gods left Camp, Chiron ushered all of the demi-gods out of the big house and outside. It was dark, and almost eleven, so he sent them to their cabins. An hour later, around midnight, Annabeth snuck around to Apollo's cabin and Zeus's cabin, bringing them to Nico's cabin.

This s why the four demi-gods of the quest sat in Hades cabin at 12:21pm, three of them watching Annabeth go on a mini rampage around the small room.

"I was so sure I was done with all of this," she said, pacing the dark cabin with heavy steps. "I thought after the war, everything would just settle down, be over. I was so positive that there would be no more stupid Labyrinth-"

"I thought that collapsed," said Cass from her perch on one of the eight black silk covered beds. Her feet and legs were on the wall while she lay on her back. She turned slightly and gazed at Nico, her olive green eyes wide. "Didn't it collapse?"

"No more holding up the sky," said Annabeth, reaching the left wall and turning as Nico nodded to Cass.

"Because you do that so often," scoffed Thalia as she polished her bow on one of the other beds beside Cass.

"No more sea of monsters," continued Annabeth angrily, stopping in the middle of the room, and going back.

"Yeah, that's definitely a one time thing," said Nico as he lay in a hammock in the corner of the small cabin, pushing himself back and forth with his foot.

"Yeah," agreed Cass, shaking out her springy brown curls and wrapping a curl around her finger. She pulled it nervously. "You wouldn't want to do that more then once."

"No more being accused of stealing lightning bolts," said Annabeth.

"Dad's was pretty pissed about that," said Thalia. "No one would be stupid enough to do that again, unless they want it up their butt."

"No more going to the underworld," added Annabeth.

"Well, that little wish just went to Hades," said Thalia.

"No more outrageous quests or merciless battles," finished Annabeth.

"Those never go away," said Nico with his eyebrows raised. "Come Annabeth, you're a daughter of Athena. Think a little."

With a sigh, Annabeth plopped down beside Thalia and lay on her back. "And now we have a horrible quest, a messed up prophecy, every god counting on us, a war brewing, my best-friend in Tartarus and the end of the world staring us in the face."

"Yeah, that sucks."

Annabeth frowned at Nico, then asked, "How long do we have to fix it all?"

Cass thought for a moment. "About three months until the winter solstice."

Annabeth pouted. "Perfect."

"No, no, no" corrected Thalia, placing her bow beside her and laying down beside Annabeth. "What's _perfect_ is going down to Tartarus when I've only been to the underworld once, and never to Tartarus."

"Really? When?" asked Annabeth, sitting up.

Thalia cast a quick look at Nico. Nico wrinkled his nose, and said: "After the battle of the Labyrinth. Not important."

"Not important," echoed Thalia.

Annabeth raised her eyebrows at them, then decided there were more important things to worry about.

"Anyway, the question is, how to do we navigate the underworld?" asked Cass.

"You can stop wasting your time, ladies, I'm right here." Nico swung back and forth on the hammock absentmindedly. "I know that nasty place inside and out, don't worry. I practically live there."

Cass lit up. "You've been to Tartarus?"

"Well, no. But I can get us there."

"Yeah, well that's all great, but how are we gonna, you know, get through Tartarus," asked Thalia.

"We'll figure it out," said Annabeth, laying back down on the bed and grabbing Thalia's hand. "We have to. For Percy."

"For Percy," replied Nico and Thalia.

Cass nodded. "For Percy," she added a moment after.

Thalia grinned, then yawned. "Hey, Nick? You mind if I crash here?"

Nico frowned. "Don't call me that. And yeah, sure. You guys wanna stay?" he asked, nodding to Annabeth and Cass.

Cass nodded with a yawn, her eyes already half-closed.

Annabeth nodded. "Sure, thanks."

Nico turned the lights off and found his way to his bed, in between the one Cass was sleeping on, and the one Annabeth and Thalia were sharing.

That morning, every demi-god at Camp Half-blood was gathered at Thalia's pine to say goodbye to four demi-gods. Argus would drive them to DOA recording studios, where they would have to do it on their own.

Chiron waved them off, and once they were out of sight, he sighed slowly. This might be their last quest, he thought to himself. It might be everyone's last battle.

Slowly, he ushered the half-bloods back to their regular activities and galloped into the big house for some rest before seniors archery. There was an IM waiting for him in the rec room.

Confused, Chiron snatched three coins from his pouch and tossed the gently into the shimmering mist. It was Apollo.

"Has Cass left yet?" he asked the moment Chiron's face appeared.

"Yes, I just sent them off," told Chiron to Apollo.

Apollo swallowed, then nodded. "Was she nervous?"

"I'm not sure. She seemed excited. It is her first real quest." Chiron smiled softly. Cass was as much his daughter as she was Apollo's.

Chiron noticed the look on Apollo's face. "It'll be fine."

"But what if-"

Chiron cut him off. "She'll be alright," he assured. "She's a wonderful fighter, and she's smart, too. The others will help her, I know she doesn't have the experience they do, but she's willing."

"But they don't know about her," insisted Apollo.

"Neither does she," added Chiron. "She has no idea."

"I worry if not telling her was the right choice," wondered Apollo aloud. "Anything could happen to her down there."

"It was the right choice. I know it was. She would be so unhappy if she knew. It's better to let her live happy."

"I know, but I can't reach her in the underworld. She could get sick again, like last winter, and I won't be there."

"I know. I promise you, she'll be alright. How long before it wears off?"

"The medication? I did it toady, so it will be a couple of days before the solstice, I have to redo it every three months."

"Well, if the prophecy is correct..." Chiron trailed off, not wanting to think about what would happen then.

Apollo gave a tight smile, then waved his hand through the mist. Sitting down on his throne, he sighed.

He had a strange feeling that this quest was not going to go well.

AN- Thank you soooooo much to everyone whose read my stuff. I'm writing as fast as I can here, to try and get this done before the New Year, well, at least to first book.

I've decided that this will be a series, with a least three books. I know how this one's gonna end, as well as the second.

I'm really excited about this series, and my OC, Cass. I hope she doesn't seem to Mary-Sueish, and please let me know if she is, because that's the exact opposite of how I want her to be.


	7. Chapter 6

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter Six

Argus spun out of the parking space in front of DOA recording studios, swerving in between cars. Cass tilted her head back and looked at the big sign above the door.

"Death On Arrival," she said dryly, tightening the grip on her silver bow. "Makes me laugh every time."

They were the only people standing that close to the main entrance. Mortals, whenever they came to close, would shake their heads and walk away. Everyone else just avoided it, like the shady place it was.

Nico opened the door, and they all walked in. Thalia wrinkled her nose. "Smells like dead people in here," she complained.

"What did you think?" asked Cass. "A freakin' flower shop?"

"You got spunk, kiddo," said Thalia, looking at Cass approvingly with a nod. "I like it."

On the inside, Cass was jumping up and down. The daughter of Zeus, with her funky circlet naming her highest ranked in the Hunter's of Artemis and punk rock style was one of the most famous demi-gods in the world, and had just said she liked Cass.

But of course, on the outside, Cass just gave her a toothy grin and with a casual wave of her hand, said: "Thanks."

Nico nodded to the pale man at the desk. "They're with me," he said with an air of superiority.

"Of course, My Lord," said the man, and Cass realized that, down here, Nico would be regarded highly.

While Nico and the pale man she recognized as Charon, talked on, Cass looked around the room. People from all over world sat, a ghostly white color, with nothing to do, only talking quietly between themselves. _How sad,_ thought Cass when she noticed a young five year old girl with a bald head, showing a Dora band-aid on her knee to a woman dressed like she was from the fifties. She probably was.

She was hardly paying attention when Charon asked Nico: "Boat or elevator?"

"Elevator." Nico led the demi-gods to an elevator and loaded them on.

It jerked up and down, and side to side, before the floor of the rickety old elevator dropped out from beneath them. Nico fell silently, while the girls screamed down the dark chute.

With a loud thump, they landed on the ground, everyone but Nico landing on their butts. The son of Hades landed gracefully on his feet.

He helped Cass get up. "Why didn't we take the boat?" she asked, while she was brushing dust of the back of her denim shorts.

"Trust me," said Annabeth.

"The boat is worse," said Thalia.

Once the dirt was off her bottoms, Cass finally got a chance to look around. A small breath of excitement left her. She was in the underworld. Where they had landed was beside the Styx, the river that Cass had only hear about. There was a small dock that looked even older then the elevator, where Cass assumed you exited the boat.

Hades' huge castle was on the tall mountain on the left, taking up all the space as far as she could she on the side. Cass could tell it had been modeled after Olympus. It was beautiful, truth be told, all black with silver trim, like how Olympus was white and gold. Cass thought it was quiet pretty.

In front of then and to their right was Asphodel's fields, a enormous field filled with black robed people and a few bare trees. It stretched out farther then they could see.

To the left, behind the large castle, there were bright lights, and music lightly floating over. "Iles of Blest," explained Nico. "But we're going over there."

Nico pointed over to a area in Asphodel's fields that almost seemed blackened. "Tartarus," said Nico. "I've only ever been to the edge of it once, on a dare with Styx."

"The river," asked Annabeth, picking herself up.

"Yeah," replied Nico, like taking dares from a river was a normal thing to do.

"What's it like?" asked Thalia as she stood up with help from Annabeth.

Nico's face darkened, and Annabeth whimpered. "It's not that bad, really, Annabeth," Nico assured her, and, though she didn't believe him, she nodded and took comfort in his false words.

"Gods, it hot down here," said Cass.

"What did you expect? Let's go," said Nico, and without a backwards glance at the girls, he started to walk into the spirits, who parted for him like the red sea.

Thalia and Cass adjusted their quivers and small packs, while Annabeth gripped her knife and hiked her backpack higher onto her back. Together, they followed Nico.

Cass and Annabeth squished closer and closer to Nico, away from the grabbing and moaning souls, while Thalia marched purposely behind them, keeping the dead at bay with the head of Medusa on her shield.

Once they had been walking for about an hour, Cass looked back. Lord Hades' castle looked closer then before, and the blacker part of the sky that Nico seemed to be aiming for never looker farther away. But, seeing as this was her first quest and she was new to the group of demi-gods (who happened to be the most famous demi-gods of their generation), Cass kept her mouth shut and kept walking.

But, of course, when Thalia let out playful complaint to her cousin, Cass didn't hesitate to agree.

"Why is this taking so long, Nick?" asked Thalia, while Cass nodded, and was happy to see that Annabeth did too.

"What part of Under_world _don't you understand? Asphodel's fields is like the size of North America."

"What about Elysium, and the Iles of Blest?" asked Cass jokingly, lifting her long brown hair away from her neck, hoping to catch a breeze. She was disappointed, and instead, tied it up with an elastic band.

"They're 'bout the size of Europe. Pretty small. 'Course Dad made the Fields of Punishment and Tartarus fill up everything else. Dad's big on torture."

"I can tell," said Thalia, and now, even though it didn't look like it, they were getting closer, and Annabeth could hear faint screams. She shivered, trying not to think of what Percy was going through.

The demi-gods continued to walk, following the Styx, the long black river that scarred the fields, cutting in between the two sides of Asphodel's fields. There was a good ten feet between the river and the spirits; they seemed to steer clear of the Styx, even thought it could do nothing to them once they were dead.

Annabeth watched as Cass stood on her toes and looked around as they walked. "What are you looking for?" she asked, pulling her sweaty Camp Half-blood tee away from her chest.

Cass turned to Annabeth and plastered a fake smile on her face. "No one. No one at all."

She noticed Nico looking at her, and she repeated herself again, this time, more to reassure herself. "No one."

The hot black sun that had been beating down on them since they'd gotten there had started to set, cooling them off.

Finally, Nico stopped. "We can camp here tonight. We'll be able to get to the field's of Punishment tomorrow, and then another day to Tartarus."

"I thought you said the underworld was the size of the world. Wouldn't take a lot longer to cross? Not that I'm complaining, or anything," said Annabeth

"I don't know why. It's kinda weird, like the Labyrinth. Time's different down here. An hour down here can be a day up there, of vice versa. You never know."

"That'll be a bit tricky, considering the fact that we're kinda on a time limit," noted Thalia.

Nico sat on the banks of the river Styx, and pulled a small book of matches of out his backpack. He busied himself with making a camp-fire while Annabeth, Cass and Thalia stared.

With a start, he looked up. "What? Never gone camping before?"

"Never in the underworld," said Annabeth, sitting down cross-legged beside the small fire. Thalia and Cass joined them.

Annabeth sat back on her backpack, closing her eyes. Thalia pulled out a square of ambrosia, and ripped it into four pieces. "Not as good as food, but it'll keep us going," she said as the munched on the godly food.

After they ate, they sat for a moment, the flames casting strange shadows on their faces. Eventually they all drifted to sleep, Nico next to the Styx, Thalia closest to the dead, and Cass and Annabeth filling the other two sides.


	8. Chapter 7

How 'bout a little Cass/Nico bonding?

Please review, and also, let me know if Cass is too Mary-Sueish.

Review, please!

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter Seven

When Cass awoke, and check her watch, she saw that it was three in the morning. She frowned. In general, demi-gods were not morning people, but demi-god dreams often caused insomnia. It was a vicious cycle, one that Cass wasn't a fan of.

The fire in front of her was still burning brightly, and Cass saw why: Nico sat on the edge of the Styx, breaking small sticks in half and tossing them in.

Without looking to Cass, he asked, "Can't sleep?"

In the darkness of the underworld, Cass slowly made her way over to Nico and sat, with her feet tucked under her, beside him. "Dream."

"Me too," said Nico darkly.

"Really? 'Bout what?"

"Don't really wanna talk about it," said Nico.

Cass nodded. "You wanna hear 'bout mine?"

Nico turned to her, so that one side of his face was orange from the flames, and the other side was dark. "Sure."

"It was about the prophecy," said Cass, watching the black, murky water to the river Styx rush by in silent, furious waves.

"Which one? There have been a few," asked Nico, breaking another stick in half and tossing it in, letting the Styx eat it up.

"This one. The current one. All about the gods dieing and stuff."

"Was is bad?"

"Awful. I'm glad you're here. I hate waking up to these things alone."

"I know what you mean," said Nico, and they were quiet for a moment.

"Hey, I know a good thing to take your mind off things," said Cass, twirling her hair around her index finger and yanking it down, the way she always did whenever she was scared or nervous or embarrased.

"2 Q's?" asked Nico, a smiling spreading across his face.

"What else?"

2 Q's stood for Two Questions, a game played at camp with new campers, to get to know them. It was a two player game, starting with one person asking a question both players had to answer.

"I'll go first," said Cass, tapping her bottom lip with her pinky. "Middle name?"

Nico grimaced. "Pluto."

Cass bit back a laugh. "Alicia."

"Pretty," said Nico. "Anything better then Pluto."

"Hey, don't beat yourself up. It's not like you had a choice. Besides, I think it's nice to be named after your father. Apollo named me after my mother, but my middle name is the name of the woman he had been with before her."

Nico winced. "Ouch. Okay, my turn. Umm, favorite god or goddess, on the Olympian council, other then your dad."

"Hades. And I'm not just saying that because I'm in his realm."

"Why?"

"He's brave, you know? And it must take a lot of courage to go up to Olympus every winter after being banished down here. And he seems nice, in a mean way. I think if he was the king of the gods, he'd be a whole different person."

"Hestia, for me," he said, biting his lower lip.

Cass nodded thoughtfully. "Makes sense."

"She's so thoughtful and nice and kind. She does things with out wanting stuff in return. She gave up her throne, when she should be the ruler of Olympus because she's oldest."

"True. Okay, more personal now. What color underwear are you wearing?"

Nico blushed. "I am soooooo not answering that."

Cass giggled slightly, feeling a bit more forward then she would've at Camp. "I don't want to have to look for myself, but I will of I have to."

Nico blushed deeper, the red on his cheeks standing out even in the darkness."Fine. Black. You? Is it pink? Purple? Something with cats on it so I can hold something against you?"

"Blue."

Nico sighed. "Okay. I got one. Who were you looking for when we were walking?"

Cass blushed, then thought of a comeback. It wasn't the best, but it worked. "You can't answer that one."

"Sure I can. I look for my sister every time I'm down here."

"Bianca, right?"

"Yeah."

"She's not in Elysium?"

"Nope. Long story, messed up Dad. If you wanna find out more, you gotta ask. Now answer my question."

Cass sighed. "My mom."

Nico nodded. "How'd she die?"

Cass inhaled deeply, then decided to tell him. "You know how I was born in Camp, right?"

"Right."

"Well, she had been trying to get to Camp, because she couldn't afford to go to the hospital. She had passed out at the boundary line, and Chiron had found her and IM'd my dad. After she gave birth to me, she went into a coma. I'm pretty sure Dad knows why, but he won't tell me. Dad stay at Camp for two years, while she was there, and she never woke up. When she died, Dad left, and didn't come back until I was ten. He never talks about her. All I know is that her name was Cass, and she was twenty."

"I'm sorry."

Cass took a deep breath and smiled softly. "Don't be sorry. It wouldn't be fair. You're like the president to the Dead Mothers club."

"Well, when you put it that way..."

Cass laughed, maybe a little too loud, and behind them, Thalia mumbled something about monster dust, and rolled over.

"Hey, Nico?"

"Yeah?"

"About the prophecy, do you really think we have a chance? I mean, '_Separated evermore, Realm of Hades to explore, Dead and alive, unite together, Search alone, in the nether'_? Pretty scary stuff."

"Back up there. You totally forgot, _Try they will, but fail they must, _and, _The gods will die, there is no trust._"

"How could I forget? But seriously. I'm kinda worried."

"Don't be. We'll make through. We'll go down to Tartarus and find Percy and everything will be alright."

Cass nodded, the pulled on a loose thread on her jeans shorts. She was wearing them with her Camp Half-blood tee and tall, back, knee-high combat boots similar to Nico's.

Nico spotted a bit of bronze poking out of her boots. "What's that?"

Cass licked her lips. "In case I run our of arrows," she said, pointing to her bow and quiver that lay near the fire. She unzipped both of her boots and showed Nico the inside.

Inside her boots were small pockets, with tiny throwing daggers in each. Zipping them back up, she showed Nico the hidden fold on the outside.

With flourish, Cass stoop up, bent down and pulled out two long hunting knives, each as long as her arm.

She put her arms down, the knife in her left hand pointing forwards, the one in her left was held almost upside-down, so that the blade was backwards. She spun around a few times and stopped in ninja pose.

Cass slipped the knives back into her boots with a grim and sat down. "Impressive, no?"

"Very."

Cass fingered her camp necklace. Nico looked at the impressive number of beads on there, then felt his own beads. There were only three of them, but he was proud of them, because for most campers, three was a lot.

Cass, with a smile, saw him looking. "Thirteen," she said. "Thirteen summers alive. Hoping to get another one next year."

"I think we all are," said Nico, and, with a burst of confidence, reached over and grabbed her hand. Cass looked up, surprised, then squeezed his hand.

"Yeah, we are."

"Tell me the truth. Are you scared?" asked Nico.

"Yeah. You?"

"Yes. Completely freaked out."

"You don't seem like it," said Cass.

"I try not to show it."

"Well, you do a good job."

The two demi-gods talked a bit longer, about nothing, really, before both falling to sleep on the banks of the river Styx.


	9. Chapter 8

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter Eight

Nico awoke with a groan, keeping his eyes tightly closed to prolong the sleeping experience that he loved so much. With the rush of the Styx in his ears, he yawned and forced himself to open his eyes.

The underworld sun beat in his eyes, and he closed them again, the opened them slowly, letting them adjust to the light.

He turned over, and, with a smile, saw Cass laying there peacefully, her hand intertwined with his. A small blush crept up his neck when he realized that he had fallen asleep with her next to him, and quickly pulled his hand away.

Nico stood up quickly, his embarrassment on rising when he realized that he would have to wake her up. Deciding to put it off, he nudged Thalia awake, who woke Annabeth, who woke Cass.

Cass, when Annabeth tapped her gently, rolled over, sat up and rubbed sleep form her eyes that way a young child would. When she saw Nico, she bit her lip and smiled softly, but didn't say a word.

"We should get going," said Nico after they'd all had a minute or two to wake up.

And, because there really was no reason to delay, and they all wanted to get going, they grabbed their packs and weapons and set off in the direction Nico advised.

Annabeth had a small worry session about Percy, and Cass comforted her, letting Thalia slip away from the girls and join Nico in the front, a few feet away.

"What is up with you?" she asked. "You're all quiet."

"Nothing."

Thalia pursed her lips, then, once she decided it wasn't worth trying to pry whatever information out of him, she nodded and walked beside him in silence.

For the next two days, the demi-gods walked on, stopping when the black sun did, and getting up with it.

They walked through the fields of punishment, and they kept their eyes in front of them, only stopping in this particular area in the underworld when Cass let her eyes wander over to a torturer and had to vomit on a small black bush.

They didn't talk much, each lost in their own thoughts. It wasn't until the area around them became much, much darker did their conversation begin to pick up.

"Is it just me?" asked Thalia, looking around in the blackness. "Or did the creepy black sun go into hiding?"

"Not just you," mused Cass.

"This is Tartarus," stated Nico.

Annabeth looked around, a look of concern on her face. "Here?"

"No. But we're getting close. Stick by me, it's easy to get lost."

The four demi-gods squeezed close together and walked in a clump, following Nico's exact steps. The black fog that had drifted in was now thick, so thick that Thalia could feel it in the air when she moved her hand.

Suddenly, Nico stopped, and the girls behind him bumped him a bit when they finally saw him no longer moving.

"What is it?" whispered Annabeth, and Nico took another step forwards in surprise.

"I can't see anything."

"Well, neither can we," hissed Thalia.

"It's never been like his before."

In the intense heat, the demi-gods shivered.

"Can you hear the Styx?" asked Nico, and everyone said the could. "If we find it, we can get to the pit. It flows right in. Get on you hands and knees and when you think you've found it, call."

The demi-gods crouched down and crawled around in the black mist. Annabeth cautiously moved with one hand sliding forwards all the time, her ears out of the rush of the Styx. The black fog seemed to cancel out all noise; she could barely hear the river, and the cries that surely would be come from down in the pit.

She slid her hand forward again, and this time, it went over an edge. With a gasp, Annabeth scooted back a bit, and caught her breath.

"Nico?" she called loudly, hoping her voice would carry. "Thalia? Cass?"

"Where are you?" a male voice floated back.

"At the edge of the pit," she shouted to him. "Follow my voice."

"Got it."

And after a few minutes of loud talking and shouting back and forth, they all accumulated around Annabeth, touching each others shoulders and arms to assure themselves that they were really there.

"What now?" asked Cass, her voice shaky and uneven.

"We jump," said Nico simply. "And we'll be able to do it a whole lot more willingly now that we can't see inside of it."

"Jump?" asked Thalia, her voice a bit higher then normal, and Annabeth squeezed her hand, remembering her friends fear of heights. "You didn't pack a really long rope or something?"

"Wouldn't work. Only rope long enough is in my Dad's office, locked up with a key he has. It's the only was for the people in Tartarus to escape without outside help."

"But we'll crash in the bottom."

"It's a minute, maybe more, of free-falling. Then Thals will have to slow the air around us so we won't crash."

Thalia shook her head wildly, her spiky black hair shaking. "I don't know how to do that."

"You're gonna have to learn."

She nodded her head nervously. "Got it."

Without another word, the demi-gods strapped their packs on tighter, put the tops on their quivers, slung their bows across their chests, sheathed their swords, and slipped their knives back into their sheaths.

"How many steps away is it?" asked Nico.

"I'm not sure. 'Bout three," said Annabeth nervously.

Nico reached his sweaty hand out and grasped Cass'. She grabbed Annabeth's and Annabeth grabbed Thalia's. They managed to clump together so that they were all facing forwards, with Cass at an awkward angle in the middle.

"I don't know if I can do this," said Cass, her voice thick like she was about to cry. No one judged her. They all had the same feeling.

"You have to. I believe in you," said Nico, and Cass nodded slightly.

"Ready?" he asked, his voice breaking a bit.

Three strangled voices returned. "Ready."

"We'll run and jump on three," said Nico. "One..."

Annabeth sighed. "Two..."

Thalia swallowed deeply. "Three..."

And the four demi-gods ran in the darkness, then jump, jump and never land.

Screams escaped their lips as they free-fell down, the wind grabbing at their hair, their ears popping, eyes open, never letting go.

In wisps, the fog lifted, and all around them was black jagged walls, stained with crimson and brown. There were layers, tunnels digging in and out through the main hole, wicked monsters baring their teeth as they fell, and they closed their eyes against the horrible sight.

Cass forced herself to open her eyes and look down. The bottom was still a black empty hole.

Screams and cries of pain and suffering filled the ears of the half-bloods, and Annabeth felt her tears lift up her face, they were falling so fast. Her ears seemed to explode with the rush of noises and that uncontrollable feeling of desperation filled her chest. Her heart beat a mile a minute, and she crushed Nico and Cass's hand.

They gripped each other tightly, never wanting to let go, because these were the only people in the world that they trusted at this very moment, they were the only people who could save them.

Annabeth looked down and screamed, louder then she had been before. The bottom of the horrible pit was approaching fast. "Thalia, NOW!" she shouted at her best friend, praying to every god she knew that they would all be alright, that when she opened her eyes again, she'd been in he cabin at camp, and everything would be alright and good again, and Percy would be there, and they'd all be alive and well.

Thalia began to panic, squeezing her eyes closed, her face screwed up in in pain and concentration, her lips moving in silent prayer that never seemed to end.

Annabeth heard Nico and Cass's voices mix together as the screamed and shouted and yelled at each other meaningless words of comfort.

And then they stopped. And then the ground was beneath their feet.

They clutched each other, and that inseparable bond that happened only in near-death experiences filled all of their chests. They each stopped screaming and took a breath of relief. But they still didn't let go.


	10. Chapter 9

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter Nine

A dark figure stood in the shadows, watching the demi-gods clutch each other as they fell down into the pit. With a backwards glance to his prisoner, he laughed. It had all been so much easier this time, a this time, he got to stay in his own form, that had waited or him for so long down here in Tartarus. He was so much more comfortable that way.

He walked back to his prisoner, the young demi-god he'd had his helpers take. He was lying there, chained to the board, covered in his own blood and vomit. His scars were hidden, and when the dark figure went to the prisoner, he flinched and tried to hide from the torturers hand. The figure laughed, the slapped the demi-god across the face, on of the nicest things he had done.

"Time for the water," mused the figure, and his prisoner, young Perseus, furrowed his eyebrows. He was brought over to a glass container of water. Percy felt his broken bones shift as they carried him. He resisted the temptation to scream. It would bring his torture endless pleasure.

With confusion, Percy looked to the container of water. But he could breath underwater. With a rough hand, his head was submerged into the water. It was freezing, and with a shiver, Percy took a deep breath. Immediately, his lings filled with water, and for the first time in his life, Percy felt what it was like to drown. He kicked and struggled against the hand pushing him down, but it just pushed harder. He forced his eyes open, and saw that the blood had washed off of him, and the water was completely red.

With his last bit of air, he kicked again, and was brought up from the water and dropped on the the stone floor, landing on his broken arm, which he cradled gently. He chocked and sputtered, water trowing itself from his mouth, grabbing at his throat, swearing and praying that he would never take air for granted again. He rocked on the floor, his tears finally coming to his eyes.

With a sharp kick in the head from his torturer, Percy was unconscious. He lay on the floor, slick with his own blood, soaking wet, the brand of his torturer cruelly engraved into his chest.

A golden scythe.

In the pit, it was ear-splitting loud, the air filled with screams and cries and shouts of pain and horror, so much unlike the quiet, black fog that they had endured just minutes before. The four demi-gods kept hugging, their legs shaking and breathing hard.

With a shuddering gasp, Annabeth broke free from the tight grasp of her friends. With a sob, she fell to the rough, tar-like ground and curled up.

The tears that she had been holding back since the meeting in the rec room came out of hiding, and she felt like a complete idiot crying on the floor to Tartarus.

She felt someone kneel next to her. The lingering scent of Cass's strawberry shampoo wafted through her nose, telling her who was there.

"Come on, Annie," she said sweetly, using Nico's nick-name for her. "Everything will be alright. We just gotta keep going."

With a tear filled nod from Annabeth, Cass helped her up. Annabeth avoid Nico and Thalia's eye.

"We should go," said Nico nervously, glancing around. "Someone was bound to see us fall."

The demi-gods scouted around, the blackness of the pit not helping them at all.

"Guys, I think I found something." Cass's voice floated over. "A tunnel, or something."

Nico, Thalia and Annabeth joined her. Cass pointed down the tunnel. After a few feet, it split into four different ones. Nico gasped. He knew about these tunnels. But of he told them, they wouldn't go in, and they had to, so he kept his mouth shut.

"_Dead and alive, unite together, Search alone, in the nether,_" recited Thalia. "We gotta split up."

"I'll take the far left," said Cass, a little too quickly, her adrenaline pumping.

"Far right," said Nico.

"I'll go beside Cass," said Annabeth, and Thalia nodded to the only tunnel left. With short nods to each other, they split up and went into their separate tunnels.

Mere seconds into the tunnel, Annabeth turned to go back, but there was no exit. Only three other tunnels. She blinked a few times, then rubbed her eyes, but it was no hallucination. The exit was gone; she was on her own.

With a sigh, she pulled out her dagger, the bronze glinting in the darkness. She turned back the way she'd been facing when she entered, and sprinted down the tunnel.

Cass ran into her tunnel, not looking back, a certain feeling of adrenaline pumping through her veins as she felt her hair bounce against her back as she ran. She ran with her bow in her hand, and arrow positioned down, ready for anyone or anything to attack. The tip of the arrow gleamed, and Cass felt her heart beat faster and faster as she ran down the halls like she knew where she was going. Nothing could stop her.

The tunnels were quiet, save for the thundering of her big black combat boots and her loud breathing as she paced herself, and a small part of her wondered why it was so silent, but that thought was pushed away by the demi-god fighting instincts in her, the godly blood the ran through her veins. She bounced on heels as she ran and a wicked smile, almost dangerous, spread across her face.

Aside from children of Aphrodite, Cass knew that children of Apollo were considered the weakest. Because they fought away from the war. Because they had behind their bows and shot from above. But Cass knew differently. It took courage. It took strength. It took aim and patience and precise training. As she ran in the tunnel, feeling her heart beat, she wished her father could she her. He knew he would be proud. Because here she was, making history, putting a child of Apollo on the map, writing the story of Cassandra Alicia Summers, daughter of Apollo, and explorer of Tartarus. And it felt good. Because she knew that this was what she was made for.

Thalia gasped in surprise and confusion the moment she stepped into the tunnel. Because it wasn't a dingy old tunnel anymore. It was a dingy old hallway, one that was way too familiar. It was the hall in a house she knew. The stupid, ugly house that she had lived in before she met Luke.

Like she was in a dream, she walked from room to room, peeking in her door and seeing her old toys and soft animals lined up on her bed, like they had been when she was seven.

The familiar bumping and laughing sound came from her mother's room, only now she knew what it was, unlike when she was seven, so young and naive.

With a shake of her head she was back in the kitchen, broken bottles covered the floor and the lingering smell of alcohol filled Thalia's nostrils.

The front door opened, and Thalia ran into the hall to see who it was. It was her father

"Dad?" asked Thalia, her chest pounding, but it wasn't Lord Zeus anymore. It was Annabeth. Then Percy. Then Grover, Nico, Cass, Rachel, Travis, Conner, her mother, Katie, Pollux, Castor, Chiron, Phoebe, Bianca, then the twelve Olympians gods, then Luke. Thalia's eyes widened with horror and fear. Where was she?

"Join me, Thals. Come on. You know you want too," whispered Luke softly to her, lovingly.

Thalia shook her head violently, and Luke produced Annabeth's dagger, covered in blood. "That's was Annie did."

And Thalia screamed.

In his own tunnel, Nico heard a female scream. His heart jumped, but he knew he couldn't do anything about it.

He had heard rumors about these tunnels by prisoners who had plead guilty in front of his father after being down here.

They were enchanted, each of them different. One showed you your past mixed with your worst nightmare. One twisted you mind, driving you insane. One showed you your fatal flaw in a way you couldn't resist. And one pushed you into a death match with Tartarus himself, with only those you've lost to help.

If you survived, or could think enough to get out, every curse ended, and the tunnels came together, and Nico remembered something about rosebushes. The roses took you wherever you wanted to go. Anywhere in the world.

Nico had no idea which one was which, but he was certain the scream came from who ever had chosen the tunnel of you past. He'd heard that that one was the worst.

He was worried about himself, but about Annabeth, too. Nico knew that she wouldn't be able to last long in these tunnels.


	11. Chapter 10

I'm kinda upset, 'cause I've working my butt off to get these chapters out and all I've gotten is seven reviews. While I appreciate the readers that reviewed, I do think it's a bit inconsiderate to not review a chapter after you've read it.

I would really appreciate your feedback.

And besides, the next three people who review get to be in this story.

Just sent me a review with your name, age, look and personality, and a crime that could have landed you in Tartarus. Accepting OC's, too. 

As always, please review, and I'm not Rick Riordan.

PS- I forgot to put disclaimers on some of my other chapters, and I'm sorry, fan fiction gods, and I'm sorry to Rick Riordan.

PS- thank you to MashPotatoeSquishBanana, for commenting and helping me.

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter Ten

On Olympus, the gods gathered in the throne room. A large clock on the wall above the giant doors clanked and the hour hand turned to the twelve. One more day gone. One day closer to the end of the world.

The gods were busy watching a large screen that floated in mid-air. On it, was the magically projected shot of of Cass sprinting through a tunnel. Then Thalia screaming in a kitchen. Nico walking slowly. Annabeth running.

They watched with such intensity, wondering where the young demi-gods were. Then Hades figured it out.

"The tunnels of fear," he said in awe.

Athena got such a wide look in her eyes, wondering why she didn't guess it first. The other gods blinked slowly, all wondering how they couldn't of noticed. The tunnels of fear were some of the most well-known tunnels in underworld legends. They were horrible.

"First the Night of the rising moon, then this," said Artemis under her breath, then looked to her brother. The goddess's heart melted. The look on his face was one of complete worry and pain for his daughter. Swallowing deeply, Artemis got out of her throne and walked over to his. She lay a comforting hand on her brothers shoulder. "It'll be alright. She's strong."

"You don't know. Only Zeus and I do," sobbed Apollo.

"Don't know what," asked Aphrodite, wanting anything else to spice up her newest love story.

"Cass's mother had leukemia when she gave birth to her," said Apollo, looking up to face his family. "It was the cancer that put her in the coma for two years. I found the leukemia in Cass when she was ten. I've been visiting her, with permission from father, every three months when she's asleep to treat her."

Aphrodite suddenly wished she'd never asked. Artemis rubbed her brother back slowly, not really knowing what else to do, but feeling close to her brother, closer then they'd been in a long time. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, but not really knowing how he felt. She didn't have any children. The hunters weren't like children.

The screen now showed a dark chamber, with a long metal table covered in blood, and a pile of bloody rags. Little did they know, that that pile of rags was a body.

"Where is this?" asked Hera, squinting at the dark screen.

"One of the torture chambers," answered Hades.

On screen, a dark figure walked in, a golden scythe in his hand.

"Kronos," breathed Zeus and Poseidon at the same time.

With a harsh hand, Kronos flipped the pile over, and the gods saw that is was indeed a body. Percy's body.

A golden scythe, they saw, was branded into the boys skin. Poseidon's lip trembled when he saw how deep it was, and how broken his son looked, holding his left arm that was bent so much, that it had to be broken. His eyes were closed, he might have been unconscious, or he might have been dead.

Kronos seemed to be wondering the same thing. With a rough push, Percy fell to the floor, a loud crack, and Percy's eyes widened immediately.

They were no longer that happy sea green color. They were sunken in to a face that belonged to a body that clearly had not had nourishment for quite some time. The pupils were large, adjusted to the darkness of the cavern, and they darted back and forth nervously, always looking for the person who was going to hurt him.

Tears filled all of the goddess eyes, while the gods stared, unmoving at the screen.

Percy turned himself over, and you could almost see his pain. With his broken arm clutched to his side, he reached for his leg with his good hand, which, the gods now saw, had a horrific gash and a bone slightly sticking out.

There were footsteps that slowly faded away, and the gods were sure that Kronos was leaving.

Percy's eyes, which had been so dry until then, filled with tears. He blinked them back, but they fell anyway, and Poseidon's fell in perfect harmony.

His crying was dignified, just tears, no overload of snot and noise, but the gods could see that he hated himself for being this weak. He was obviously more hurt then he'd ever been.

His mouth started moving, a prayer, and his voice, like the voices of all prayers, lifted up from the ground of the throne room.

"_Dad. Lord Zeus. Lord Hades. Anyone. Please. Help me please. Dad. Please."_ And then the screen went blank.

The throne room was quiet for a moment.

"What do we do?" asked Apollo quietly.

"There's nothing we can do," said Artemis just as softly, watching her uncle cry silently.

Later on, Kronos flexed his arms, then raised the whip. Percy flinched when it hit his shoulder, biting his lip to keep the string of curses and screams inside of him. He hit Percy again and again, until, for the first time, he shouted out, and Kronos laughed, and walked into the shadows.

The scythe on his chest burned, worse then the hot metal that had been pressed onto his back a few days before. At least he thought it was days.

Percy knew, like everyone( but only because Annabeth had told him), that the underworld was like the Labyrinth, and that time meant nothing.

Percy spent every free moment thinking about Annabeth, and his parents, and cousins and friends and the Gods. He wanted more then anything for them to come and rescue him. He thought of the prophecy, the one he never got to hear. He bet it had something to do with his imprisonment.

But back to the scythe. Percy was sure that it wasn't just a brand. The scar seemed to get deeper and deeper everyday, and Percy often felt himself grow weak whenever Kronos would approach.

He knew something was up. He couldn't place it.

Annabeth ran until she could run no more. Her feet were tired, her lungs were aching. In her head, she wished for a place to sit down, and a bench appeared.

Too tired to worry about the dangers of this magical chair, she sat and rested her feet. She felt her chest rise and fall rapidly with her breathing.

With a winded sigh, she leaned her head back. On the ceiling above her, was the most intricate carvings and molds. With a look of awe, she searched her brain to see what architect had designed it. It was absolutely beautiful.

"It was you," said a voice that was all too familiar, and Annabeth turned and saw Luke. With a cry, she jumped up and wrapped her arms around him.

"What are you doing here? Why are you down here?" Annabeth's mind was racing a mile a minute, and for those seconds she forgot all about Percy.

"You," he answered simply, and Annabeth took back everything she'd said about not loving him.

"What do you mean by me?"

"This is all you, Bethie. This is what you designed."

"Really?" she breathed.

"Really. You did all of this. You're amazing," Luke said breathlessly, taunting her horribly.

Annabeth looked up at him, her gray eyes burning into his blue ones. He leaned towards her gently, and she leaned back. "I can't do this. Not to Percy," she said.

"Do you really think he's gonna survive?" he asked, causing her lower lip to tremble. "No, no, Bethie. Don't cry, Percy's a good guy. He wants the best for you, I know he does. He loves you. He wouldn't want you to mope all alone."

Annabeth looked up to him, his lips mere inches away from hers. "But you're dead."

"Who says?"

The daughter of Athena was stumped. Tears came to her eyes as Luke lifted her chin and lovingly kiss her lips. "I love you, Bethie."

And then Percy was wiped from her mind and Luke filled his place. "I love you too."


	12. Chapter 11

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter 11

Nico ran in his tunnel, pacing himself so he wouldn't get too tired. Really, he had absolutely no idea what tunnel he was in, but so far, it had been empty, just thick, curved stone walls that went forward and a marble floor that reminded him of Olympus.

He was silent in his running, a skill he had picked up over the years. Voices filled his ears, and he couldn't be sure if they were his imagination or not. Nico slowly, the used the shadows around him to become invisible, something that his father had taught him.

For the first time, there was a curve in the walls, and Nico pressed his invisible body against the wall and listened.

From the voices, Nico could tell that they were monsters, but the might as well of been using sign language, because he couldn't tell for the life of him what they were saying.

He moved forward slightly, and he foot caught on a ledge. With a curse under his breath, he fell, much too loudly for the tunnel, and the last thing he heard were some shouts and the firing of arrows over his head.

When he came to, Nico saw that he was in a cell, his sword gone, along with his throwing knives. With a loud yell, he banged his hands on the floor. He knew he should have been paying more attention.

"They're going to make you fight," said a female voice, and Nico whipped his head around, searching for Annabeth, or Thalia, or Cass.

"Over here," said the voice again, and Nico looked through his bars, and across the thin hall. In a cell across from him was a girl, maybe eighteen years old, with light brown hair. Her eyes were covered with long bangs that, from the look of them, hadn't been washed or cut in a long time.

"Where am I?" he asked, although, the son of Hades had a hunch, and he was usually right.

"The war tunnel," said the girl sincerely, her voice a bit hoarse from being unused for so long. "You know about the four tunnels, don't you?"

"Yeah," said Nico sitting down with his back on the wall of his small cell, looking out at the girl. "I know all about the tunnels."

The girl, obviously happy for some companionship, kept talking. "I'm Andra Marquette," she introduced herself.

Nico looked her in the eye. "Nico."

"Are you a demi-god?" asked Andra shyly.

"Yeah. You?"

Andra nodded happily. "Who is your parent?"

"Hades," said Nico, and Andra nodded seriously.

"What about you?" asked Nico, and Andra froze.

"I shouldn't say his name. He doesn't know I'm here."

Nice was confused. "What do you mean?"

Andra crawled to the bars of her cell, and Nico did the same. "My father," she whispered. "Is Kronos."

Nico gave a start, then eyed her warily. "Then why are you here?"

"The gods sent me here," she said. With a sigh, she pushed her hair out of her eyes and Nico saw that they were gray, like Annabeth's but with flakes of gold in them. "I led an attack on them when my father tried to rise the fort time. I was under his spell."

Nico shook his head. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up. The first time? That was almost five hundred years ago."

Andra nodded. "They cursed me immortal. Immortal suffering in Tartarus."

"Wait. But why doesn't your father know you're here?"

"He thinks I'm dead."

If someone who knew Thalia looked at her know, they wouldn't recognize her. Her spiky black hair was pulled strait up, with bits missing from where she'd pulled at it. Her normally sparkling blue eyes were dark and sunken in to her skull. The light seemed to have gone out of her.

For the past three days, she had been reliving all of her horrible memories, with horrible twists at the end, making them worse then the original.

In Thalia's mind now, Artemis was dead, as was Nico and Annabeth and Percy. Kronos had won.

Cass never stopped running. A part of her wanted too, but it was like the body wasn't taking orders anymore. She was a machine, a killing machine, her knives gleaming.

When finally, she stopped and sat down, her body took over. She told herself to stop, but her arm lifted the knife anyway, and make small incisions in her left arm. With a obeying tongue, she lapped up the blood, while tears ran down her cheeks. She felt so helpless, not being able to control her actions.

_Give in, give in,_ a voice in her head urged, and Cass resisted.

She fought against her own body until the pain was too much and she gave in. With a laugh, her wild side took over, and her smeared the blood from her arm onto her face, giving herself bright crimson war stripes. She tore of the bottom half of her shirt and her sleeves of it, cutting at the neckline so it dipped dangerously low. With an animal-like snarl, she hacked at her hair.

When her transformation was complete, she stood there, her wild side showing through. Her shorts were cut short, and her stomach showed completely, her short covering only what it needed too. Her hair, once so long and curly, has hacked short, with a longer strip in the middle, most of the hair dye red with her blood.

She licked her lips and bared her teeth, then ran off with only her weapons, leaving her backpack behind, along with her former memories. No longer was she Cass Summers, demi-gods daughter of Apollo. She was Cass, fierce demi-gods warrior.


	13. Chapter 12

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter 12

Thalia was a mess. The small part of her mind that was still in working order told her to get out, so she put most of her energy into that.

She wandered around searching endlessly for an exit, opening every door, and calling out her friend's names, who, in her mind, were dead.

After a good two days of searching her memories, Thalia found herself back in her old house. She remembered enough to know that this was where she had come in originally. But for where, she had no idea. The underworld quest and the four tunnels had been wiped from her mind.

Thalia ran through her old house, kicking down every door and smashing through every window to poke her head out and see if she was somewhere different. With her chest heaving, she ran into the main hallway and tore open the closet door, knowing shoes and coats to the ground in her desperate attempt to escape. In a rampage, she exited the closet and tore down the hall.

Ghostly figures from her past lined the walls of the hall, and they reached their long, transparent arms towards her.

Thalia waved her arms in the air, above her head, and kept her eyes tightly shut, anything to avoid the ghosts. "Go away!" she called out to them. "Leave me alone!"

With one last breath of desperation, Thalia reached out and grabbed a door handle. She didn't know which one it was, but she twisted it, and the door creaked open and, with her eyes still closed, ran outside.

When Thalia opened her eyes, her house was gone. She was in a round room, with a singular tunnel leading out, and four of them behind her, one being the tunnel she'd just stepped out of.

With a pounding rush, everything came back to her. She clutched her head as the information she'd been thinking of for the past however long left her brain and the true information flew in. Her head pounded.

Her chest was thumping up and down, and she sat for a moment on the tile floor to catch her breath. For and odd reason, the room was cold, unlike the rest of the underworld. She blew on her cupped hands to warm them, the rubbed her hands on her upper arms in an attempt to warm them up. She sat for a moment, gathering her thoughts, before she straightened up and stretched.

Thalia turned around and faced the tunnel she'd just come out of, the looked to the other three. She knew she had to get her friends out of them. _Annabeth first, _she thought, adjusting her quiver. _Then Cass and Nico. Then Percy. _

With a sigh, Thalia turned and walked into Annabeth's tunnel.

Thalia smiled softly when she saw the tunnel. It was no longer an tunnel really, it was like a town, filled with buildings that Thalia had only ever seen before on sheets of paper in Annabeth's cabin. She knew at once that her best friend had designed it.

What made her have her mouth hang open a bit was the natural disaster happening on what would most likely be called Main Street.

There, standing in the middle, was Annabeth, swapping spit with Luke in a fierce lip-lock. Thalia gave them both a look of disgust, before walking towards them.

She had guessed enough, now to know that most of what happened in these tunnels was fake so she didn't bother grabbing Annabeth's arm and wanking her away from Luke, who didn't really notice Thalia was there.

Annabeth kicked and screamed, and tried to bite Thalia's hand, but Thalia kept her eyes forward and marched away from Luke and into the room.

Once in the circular room, Annabeth didn't clue in like Thalia had. She ran back to the tunnel, but Thalia grabbed her arm and twisted it back behind her, forcing Annabeth to go back to Thalia of she still wanted her left arm.

Thalia twirled her around so that Annabeth was facing her, and then, in a desperate rush of love and hope for her best friend, reached up her hand and slapped her across the face, like those mean girls in bad teen dramas. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she shouted into her face.

The weird glaze on Annabeth's eyes lifted, and they returned to their normal beautiful gray self. She stared at Thalia in disbelief, then raised her had to the cheek that had been slapped and felt it.

"Oh Gods," she said, her memories coming back to her, both of Percy, and what she'd done. "Oh my Gods! I kissed him!"

"I was there," said Thalia, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"That wasn't the first time," admitted Annabeth.

Thalia made a gagging noise. "Holy Hera. How long were you in there?"

"Promise you won't tell Percy?"

"Trust me, Bethie, if we get outta here alive, telling Percy you kissed Luke multiple times will not be at the top of my list. We need to get the others out of here now, find Percy, fight Kronos, and then, maybe, just maybe of we win, I'll tell him."

Annabeth nodded. "Thanks. Who first?"

"Cass is in the oth-" Thalia was cut of by an ancient warrior scream.

"What the fu-" Annabeth was cut off as well, by a large black combat boot to the stomach. Thalia found her self on the ground, too.

There stood Cass, her hair sliced short with a warrior stripe, her eyes wild and haunted. There was blood on her cheeks, war stripes, and cuts all over her body, and most of her clothes had been ripped up or ripped off. Her flat, muscled stomach was available for all to see.

Thalia jumped up and grabbed a dagger from her sheath. "What tunnel was she in?" she muttered to Annabeth, who got up as well. "And what the heck happened to her hair?"

Annabeth shrugged and pulled out her bronze dagger. She gave it a look of disgust before returning her thoughts to the tiny battle in front of her. "I don't know. Try and slap her. It worked for me."

"Got it," said Thalia, and she moved around, but Cass's constant twirl of bronze weaponry mad eit hard to reach her. "Gods, Annabeth, what in the name of Hades is she doing?"

Cass had scaled part of the wall, and now glared down at them, licking her lips in a way that was anything but cute. Her lips were bright red, and Thalia knew it was blood. "Good Gods, what happened to you?" she muttered under her breath.

"I gotta plan," said Annabeth. "Just go with it."

Thalia nodded to her best friend, then bent her knees in warrior pose and waited for Cass to come down.

With a animal-like snarl, Cass leaped down. Thalia widened her eyes in fear, and looked to Annabeth, but she was gone, hidden under the mask of her invisibility cap.

Then, Cass's weapons were knocked out of her hands. Thalia walked out to her and Cass's hands were held behind her back.

"Sorry," apologized Thalia to Cass, before she hit her in the face. Cass just bared her teeth, ignoring the slap. "It's not working," yelled Thalia into the general area she thought Annabeth was.

"Do it again!" she yelled from behind Cass, and Thalia did.

Cass fought and fought against them, and tears of desperation came to Thalia's eyes as she repeatedly hit her friend. Cass struggled against them, making it harder, and all Thalia wanted to do was stop. With tears in her eyes, Thalia grabbed Cass's shoulders and shook them. "Wake up, Cass!" she yelled into her face. "Wake up!"

Then finally, Cass stopped struggling. Her eyes widened, and Annabeth and Thalia backed off in relief to give her some space.

After a moment, Cass stood up shakily, and touched her hair, feeling it's length. "Oh Gods," she laughed.

"I like it," said Thalia, appraising her with a happy. "It's cool. Like a Greek, demi-god warrior princess thing, or something, you know?"

Cass licked her lips, but it wasn't intimidating this time. It was playful and apologetic. "Thanks, Thals. Nico?" she asked.

Thalia nodded, and pointed to the last tunnel. "Shall we?"

Cass laughed, her hands still on her head. "We shall."

The three demi-gods walked in a row, holding hands, and talking quietly. A small chain of girl, marching in. One with princess curls and intimidating eyes. One with punk clothes and eyeliner. And one with a warrior style 'do, and a grim look of determination. They were coming.


	14. Chapter 13

Someone pointed out to me that Thalia was getting out of character, but this is the way I see her. I don't think

she's super tough and unfriendly, and besides, being on a quest, in my opinion, would make you act like this.

If you don't like it don't read it, no one's making you do anything.

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter 13

Nico sat in his cell, tapping his fingernails against the steel. It was unbelievably hot in this part of Tartarus, and while Nico was used to the underworld most of the time, this heat had reached a whole new level.

Andra was across from his, asleep, looking as peaceful as one could in a prison cell. In a way, she reminded Nico of Cass. They both had a happy and sarcastic personality, and they had the same giggly laugh, and they both made Nico feel at home.

Nico was slightly worried about his predicament. Some men had said that the tunnel he was currently in was the worst, but some said different, and he was worried not only for the safely of the girls he was traveling with, but for himself as well, because, if they didn't get out, there was no way in Hades that he would. He knew he would need outside help.

He had no idea how long he'd been in this cell, of in the underworld for that fact. In Andra's cell, she had scratched in a mark after she woke up, counting those marks as days, and from her count, he'd been there a week, but he wasn't really sure.

The so-called 'days' were made up of sleeping, talking with themselves and some of the other prisoners, and eating the tiny bit of ambrosia that they tossed into the cells every couple of days. Andra always gave Nico hers.

Nico remembered asking Andra what happened to the mortals that were prisoner, and she'd only shuddered. "You don't wanna know," she'd said.

With a sigh, Nico pulled at his dirty camp shirt, hoping to get a breeze, or something to cool his chest. His ear length black hair was stuck to his head in an uncomfortable way. It was hot and humid down here, and for the first time in his life, Nico found himself wishing to be back at Camp-Halfblood.

Of course, Nico knew that his discomfort was nothing compared to the pain and suffering he was sure Percy was enduring.

As it so happened, Percy was unconscious. Kronos stood above him, scythe in hand, twirling it around. He was quiet weak, and was glad that Percy would soon be ready for the transformation. His energy came to him whenever he was near the young boy's brand, and that was often. As a result, he was becoming more and more sleepy and tired, as Kronos was coming more powerful everyday. It was perfect.

Breathing hard, a monster worker of his rushed up to him, his furry and mud-caked feet beating hard against the stone floor. The monster bowed, then caught his breath. "My Lord," he said in a breath.

Kronos looked to him, a cold, hard look in his golden eyes. "Yes?"

"I have a man here," said the monster, shaking slightly under the fear of his master. "He's asking for freedom in exchange for information."

"What information?"

The monster pushed forward a man. He was young, about twenty-three, someone who had been taken for fun and tortured when the monsters were bored. He wore gray ragged clothing, that probably were not gray when he had entered and his light brown hair was starting to go gray like his clothes, even thought he was young. Kronos raised his eyebrows at him, and the young man shivered a bit in the Titan's presence.

"There's prisoner in the fight tunnel," said the man nervously after he'd bowed to the Titan lord. "A new one. A demi-god. Said his name was Nico, a son of Hades. Was introducing himself to a girl."

"The son of Hades is here?" mused Kronos. "Probably with a rescue group, somewhere else in the other tunnels. How sweet." Kronos tapped the scythe thoughtfully. "Is that all?"

Now, the prisoner seemed to be bursting with excitement. "The girl in there. Introduced herself as Andra Marquette." Kronos stopped at looked at the man as he continued. "Said she was your daughter. Said you didn't know she was there. Said that she was five hundred years old, she said."

Kronos looked downright furious. "Kill him," he said in a undertone to the monster, who dragged the man away, taking no heed to the man's pleas.

Kronos called in another worker, a she-demon wearing a low-cut red dress. "Go the the fight tunnel. Check the cells. Bring me a girl with light brown hair, and gray eyes. She's across from a black-clad boy."

Cass, Thalia and Annabeth marched into Nico's tunnel. Immediately, they ran into monsters, and they killed them silently. Not wanting to break up again, Annabeth put on her invincibility cap, and Cass and Thalia gave each other boosts up to the ceiling, and used the large pipes hanging up there to crawl across.

It was quiet in the tunnel. Everything they said or anytime they made a noise echoed all around, so, for the most part, they stayed quiet.

After a while of moving, they came to a four-way intersection. The three girls paused as a slightly slutty demon stalked past them, dragged a struggling girl behind her. For a moment, none of them moved, the Annabeth made a small noise, and took off her invisibility cap for just a moment to point left, then jammed it back on her curls.

Cass reached over to a smaller pipe and tested her weight. With an approving nod to Thalia, she used it to swing over to the next big pipe, landing with a small thump.

"Sorry," she mouthed to Thalia, who had followed and given her a frown.

They followed Annabeth's footsteps for a while, trusting her instincts as a daughter of Athena, but really, Annabeth herself wasn't really sure where she was going. She walked forward, the heart beating louder then it should have, and she kept thinking that it would get her caught. Every time she looked up, she saw Cass making her way along the pipe, looking back to Thalia, whose fear of heights made the whole procedure difficult.

A few times, they came across monsters walking along, and Cass and Thalia had to tuck themselves onto the pipe like an acrobatic and wait for it to pass. On the rare occasion that a monster did see the two girls on the roof, Annabeth would sneak behind it, and an invisible knife would cut it's throat.

After what felt like an hour of walking, Annabeth looked both ways for monsters or whatever else roamed the tunnels, whipped off her baseball cap and snapped her fingers to get their attention.

Thalia and Cass looked down. "What?" mouthed Thalia.

"I'm gonna go look around," whispered Annabeth. "Stay there, It'll be easier. Don't worry," she added at their worried expressions. "I won't get caught. I got this." She pointed to her cap and put it on over top of her blond hair, which, in the heat and humidity of the underworld, had expanded to twice it's normal size, but still looked battle-ready and cute. Cass felt her own hair, short and somehow strait, like cutting it had taken the curl out of it.

"Did she leave?" whispered Cass as she settled herself in a some-what comfortable position on the large metal pipe.

"Yeah, I think so." Thalia's eyes were squeezed shut.

"Oh Gods," said Cass, pressing her rough fingers against her mouth. Her man-hands, she called them, her least favorite part of her body. "I totally forgot about your whole heights thing."

"No, no," said Thalia, rocking slightly on the pipe. It's circular shape helped the girls stay on without their feet showing from below, and the pipe itself was at least two feet across. "I'm fine. I just shouldn't look down."

"Gods. That free-fall must have killed you," whispered Cass in a sympathetic voice.

"It did."

Thalia fell silent, and Cass didn't really want to start a conversation with someone whose mind was elsewhere. Her larger then normal fingers idled up by her shoulder, but there was no hair to tug at anymore. With a sigh, she settled with pushing on her knuckles, letting out her worry with the crack of her fingers letting the air out of her knuckles. The kids of Aphrodite always told her that her fingers would get fat if she cracked her knuckles, and maybe that's why her fingers were bigger then the usual girls, but it was something to relieve her worry when hair wasn't available.

She glanced over to Thalia, who was rocking back and forth a bit, her spiky ear length black hair missing in some spots( Cass didn't ask), her bright blue eyes closed and her mouth moving silently, maybe a prayer, maybe a song, Cass wasn't sure.

Knowing that she was tired and knowing that Annabeth would be back before she knew it, Cass pushed herself down further on the pipe until her back was touching it. She rolled her shoulders a few times, then twisted her fingers and awaited the cracking noise. When it came, Cass closed her eyes, satisfied, and pretended she was in her bed at camp, warm and cozy with her brothers, with her family. With that image in her mind, Cass allowed herself to sleep.


	15. Chapter 14

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter 14

The screen on Olympus fizzed out, and then faded to black. It re winded, the characters on screen rooming backwards in conversation, before starting up again. With wide eyes, the gods and goddess of Olympus watched as Nico di Angelo made friends with their worst enemy, and then reveal that it wasn't her fault.

"Holy. We screwed up," said Aphrodite, her fingernails only half painted as she'd stopped when the screen came on again. The screen was weird that way. It only showed certain things that were happening at that moment, and then turned off. It was like it had a mind of it's own.

"Sure did," replied Demeter, watching the screen with a faint feeling of relief that her sons and daughter weren't down there, fighting.

"Nothing we can do about it," said Zeus firmly, taking control as always. "Tartarus doesn't let things go once you sentence them down there."

"Maybe," muttered Hades, and everyone turned to him. "You want Mrs. Marquette out? I have an idea."

Under the protective shield of her invisibility cap, Annabeth crept away from Thalia and Annabeth and headed left, her immediate choice. Her bronze dagger was at her side, gripped tightly, but she hadn't yet felt the need to use it.

Without having to wait for Thalia and Cass, Annabeth moved much faster then she had before, covering much more ground. When she had been walking before, she'd been scouring her brain for these tunnels, and had found out about the tunnels of fear, something she'd read about almost a year before, and had figured out enough information to know that Nico was in the fight tunnel, the tunnel forcing you to fight another demi-god, or a Titan, God or monster to the death. Winners were let free.

She assumed that Nico would be kept in a cell, so she waited until a monster walked by, and followed it through a series of tunnels she spent the whole time memorizing. The ugly lion-like monster led Annabeth of a locked door. The lion thing unlocked it and opened it, and Annabeth slipped in unnoticed.

Creeping slowly, Annabeth stopped at each crude cell and peered inside, being careful not to bump anything or breath to loudly. In the center of the first row of cells, Annabeth looked to the right, into an empty cell, then to the left.

"Bingo," she whispered so softly that she herself could barely hear it. Annabeth moved a bit closer to the cell that the cousin of her boyfriend and best friend was in. Nico was awake, staring at a wall, the left wall to be exact.

"Nico," she whispered a little louder then her first.

Nico's head lifted up. "Andra?" he asked, looking around.

"No, dumbo. It's me," Annabeth tapped the bars on his cell door, and Nico looked into the space she occupied and smiled softly, knowing there was only one person who would come invisible to rescue him.

"Hey, Bethie. You came to rescue me?" Nico crawled so close to Annabeth, that, if it wasn't for the bars, their noses would be touching. "Where are the girls?"

"Hiding. Up in the pipes."

Nico nodded, distracted. "Hey. Did you see a girl when you were walking?" he whispered to her. A cell guard walked by, but didn't take notice. Prisoners talked to themselves all the time down here.

Annabeth search her mind. "Yeah, there was a girl, a while back. She was being dragged by a she-demon down the hallway when we were sneaking in. Why?"

"That's Andra. An immortal girl I met down here."

Annabeth gasped. "Back up there, Death Breath. Andra? As in Andra Marquette?"

Nico nodded. "Yeah. You know her?"

"Know her?" hissed Annabeth. "Everyone knows her. She was the first half-blood to try and lead an attack on Olympus, first half-blood ever to be cursed immortal and sentenced to Tartarus."

"She was possessed by her father," said Nico back to her.

"What!? By Kronos?"

"Yeah. She told me. But she was taken away."

Annabeth, if Nico could have seen her, was sheet white. "Oh, Gods, Nico. Did anyone over hear you talking to her?"

Nico shrugged. "Sure. Some guys in some cells nearby. One of them was taken yesterday, never came back. Why?"

"Nico! That guy told Kronos! Why do you think Andra would be down here for five hundred years and then her father just magically know she was here? Did you mention your name?"

"Well, yeah, we talked for, like, three days. I told her about all of you guys and how..." Nico trailed off and realization hit his face. "Oh my Holy Hephaestus."

Annabeth reached through the bars and hit Nico's head as hard as he could. "Gods, Nico, know he knows we're down here."

"Annabeth, Gods, I'm sorry," Nico blushed a bit. "Really, I just wasn't thinking."

Annabeth nodded, then, realizing that Nico couldn't see her, said, "I'm gonna go back, find out a way to bring Thalia and Cass ov-" Annabeth was cut off by a monster stomping up to Nico's cell.

The monster shoved a key into the lock and turned it. With a pop, the door opened, and Annabeth had to move out of the way to avoid getting hit by it. "You're turn in the arena," growled the monster, and Annabeth had never seen such fear in Nico's eyes before. It was obvious he'd heard stories from survivors.

The monster cuffed Nico's arms and legs together, then pushed him down the tunnel. For a minute, Annabeth hurried along side him.

Quickly, she whispered into his ear. "I'll get Thals and Cass. Don't worry, we'll get you out of here." After a quick kiss on the cheek for her friend, she turned and hurried back in the other direction, hoping she'd remember how to get back to where she'd left Thalia and Cass.

After a half an hour of retracing her steps, Annabeth found Cass and Thalia. The halls were empty, Annabeth assumed that everyone would be at the arena, so she took off her base-ball cap, and sent her mother, Athena, a small thank you prayer for it, like she did every time her cap played a big help in something important.

Cass, she saw was sound asleep, but Thalia was sitting nervously on the pipe, and only looked down and over to Annabeth when Annabeth threw her running shoe at the pipe, and it bounced off loudly.

Excitedly, Thalia pushed Cass with her foot until she woke up, then gladly jumped down to the floor, giving it a comical kiss, stealing laughter from her friends. "You sure the coast is clear?" she asked Annabeth, looking from left to right after she'd finished her make-out session. "Only thing I'll ever kiss, My Lady, I swear," she added after jokingly. "I hate pipes. Officially."

"Yeah, the coast is clear. Everyone'll be in the arena," said Annabeth.

"The arena?" asked Cass as she hopped down from the tunnel, arching her back as she rubbed the spot she'd slept on funny. "Why?"

"They've sent Nico there."

"Holy Hera," muttered Thalia. "Is that place bad?"

"Worse then bad," said Annabeth, and Cass gave an involuntary shiver. Her short hair shook and moved a bit when she did.

"Should we go there?"

"Hades yes," said Annabeth, answering Thalia's question.

"How are we gonna do this guys?" asked Cass, and Thalia laughed.

"Obviously never been on a quest with us, kid. We're definitely more of a make it up as we go along kinda group," she said,

"Yeah, plans are for suckers," joked Annabeth. "Lets go."

Annabeth managed to get her friends to the cell block again, where they walked quickly past half-dead prisoners, hoping they'd think it was just a hallucination. But, once they got to the end, and the other door, Annabeth was stumped. She though for a minute, stopping only when Thalia leaned against the door and it swung open.

Cass tuck her head outside the door, and then looked back inside, her green eyes looking bigger then ever with her new haircut. "There seems to be a whole lot of cheering coming from the end of this hallway, so why don't we take a shot in the dark and follow the happy noise?"

Thalia nodded. "Sounds good to me," she said.

Annabeth tilted her head towards Cass. "Lead the way, Summers."

Cass held open the doors for her friends and then closed it gently behind her, using one of her many knives as a buffer so that the door wouldn't lock, because Cass saw that it locked from the outside. "Just in case we need a quick getaway," she informed her friends.

Annabeth nodded, and smoothed back a strand of way-ward hair. In this hallway, there was loud cheering and shouting, and it seemed a little too friendly to the underworld. Of course, Annabeth had to remind herself what they were all cheering about.

They walked a bit into the hall, until they reached another door, one with blacked out windows with a large lock around it. "Alright," said Cass. "I'm not sure what's on the other side if this door, and I don't care, 'cause I don't wanna spend precious time searching for another one. And no, I'm not asking for a plan, I'm asking for an outline because, like, how in the name of Hades are we gonna rescue a person from in here?"

"Okay," breathed Annabeth. "Number one, I have no idea. And number two, it's two people."

"Two?" asked Thalia. "Is a bit of that crazy from the tunnels still left over in that brain of yours Chase?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "No. Andra. I want to bring her up to Olympus. See if she can get a fair trial. It wasn't actually her fault, Nico told me before he was captured."

"Annabeth, that's crazy," said Cass.

"For once, I agree with shorty over here," said Thalia and Cass frowned, mouthing 'I am not that short'. "It's gonna be hard enough with one person."

Annabeth crossed her arms. "What if you two were stuck in there, huh? Would you expect you just to rescue one of you, because two would be too hard?"

Thalia let out an exasperated sigh, and Cass stepped up. "That's different, Annabeth. We don't know her. Our main priority is Nico. But I do agree with you on some level, we should try. If we get Nico on his way out with one of us, another can distract everyone and the other can get Andra out."

Annabeth nodded. "Good. Cass, you take Nico. Thals, kick anyone's ass who comes your way. And fry 'em with lightning. I'll get Andra."

Everyone nodded, and Cass pulled out a small silver knife. "Cuts anything," she said as she sliced open the chain, and pushed the door open.

"Oh Gods."


	16. Chapter 15

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter Fifteen

_Everyone nodded, and Cass pulled out a small silver knife. "Cuts anything," she said as she sliced open the chain, and pushed the door open._

"_Oh Gods." _

It was Nico. In the middle of a fighting arena. With nothing to defend himself or fight with.

The sights and sounds came as rush to Cass. The screaming and cheering of the monsters, yelling over each other, the flashing lights in the battle arena nicer and flashier then the one in Camp Half-blood, and Nico, standing there weaponless.

The three girls had entered the arena in a side door, unnoticed, and they crouched down under the bleachers set up for the fight, and pulled out their weapons. Annabeth grabbed her dagger, Thalia selected an arrow for her bow, and Cass slung her bow across her chest, opting for her long hunting knives.

"Where's Andra?" whispered Cass, shifting from one knee to another. "What does she look like?"

"I don't know. I never saw her. She looks like a daughter of Kronos, how's that?"

Cass sighed, picturing a woman looking like Luke (the only Kronos she'd even known). Quickly, she shook the mental image out of her head. "Thanks for nothing."

"Your welcome."

The lights in the arena dimmed down, and the crowd fell silent. A bright spot-light fell on Nico, who flinched, and looked down, away from the bright lights.

"Here, we have Nico di Angelo, Son of Hades, prisoner," announced a Chimera in the stands, shouting into a microphone. "This fine young man has had his challenger picked out for him by Lord Kronos himself." The crowds went wild at Kronos's name, and the demi-god stowaways wrinkled their noses. "The challenger will be..." There was a drum roll. "Andra Marquette, his own daughter!"

There was such a loud noise after that statement that Thalia and Cass had to cover their ears. Annabeth, however, was watching a slim brunette being pulled across from Nico. Of course, the girl had access to whatever weapons she wanted.

Annabeth nudged Cass and pointed. "There. Andra looks like that," and Cass smiled tightly. Now was not a time for jokes.

"This is good," mused Annabeth. "She wants to escape, I'm sure. Why would she want to stay here?And, she'll be helpful. She ought to know somethings about Tartarus. We'll run out, toss one of Andra's weapons to Nico, fight whatever bad-ass monster come our way, and then get out the way we came. I can remember the way we took from the circle room, and then we're out. Simple."

"Yeah," said Thalia. "Simple."

A loud chant rose up from the stands, all monster bellowing it out. "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"

With a pained expression, Andra picked up a sword. While she held it, her eyes wandered over to the three demi-gods in hiding. A grin lit up on her face, and she shouted something to Nico over the noise, who looked around eagerly.

" Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Andra nodded to us, before picking up a second sword and charging at Nico. Annabeth, Cass and Thalia ran out as well, weapons out, and instead of getting mad, the monsters cheered harder. They thought it was all part of the fight.

When Andra reached Nico, she tossed the sword from her left hand into his. He twirled it, getting used to it. By the time the three girls had reached the two prisoners, the monsters had figured out their plan, but, granted, it wasn't the best. With a cry, the ugly beasts charged, reaching for the swords kept in their own sheaths, and ran down the stairs of the stands, fighting each other to get a shot at the demi-gods.

Andra, Nico, Cass, Thalia and Annabeth stood with their backs facing each other, in a circle. Over the noise, Nico shouted, "This is Cass, daughter of Apollo, Thalia, daughter of Zeus, and Annabeth, daughter of Athena. This is Andra, immortal daughter of Kronos."

Cass, Thalia, Annabeth and Andra each waved respectively, a short, annoyed wave with weapons.

"There," Nico said and nodded. "Just thought we'd all like to know each other before we die."

"Except for Andra," mused Cass absentmindedly watching the monsters rapidly come closer and closer.

Andra sighed. "Yeah. Except for me."

There was only a few feet between demi-gods and the monsters, who were headed at the full speed. The four half-bloods and immortal tensed, weapons in hand, and swallowed hard.

The first monsters hit Cass, who raised her knives against the blow, ducking, and kicking it in the stomach. She twisted out of the way.

Nico and Andra fought, back to back, swords drawn and ready. Together, they hacked and stabbed in perfect rhythm, so timed, you'd think it was rehearsed.

Thalia had bounded away, and opted to shoot from afar. She shoot arrow after arrow, watching with pleasure when they pierce their target, which, she had to admit, was each time.

Annabeth slipped her invisibility cap over her head and slid around, hacking and hitting monsters ankles of legs, turning them into showers of monster dust. Annabeth always had to make sure to move away form it, or else the dust would cover her invisible body and she would revel herself. Anytime one of her friends was in trouble, she'd help, and they would never wonder what happened; Annabeth was Annabeth, and that was what she did.

Everything seemed to be going according to the plan. They fought, never touched, killing off the bad guys and winning. Until, of course, Cass got cut in the arm while fighting.

With a gasp, Cass pressed her left hand against her right arm, the knife in the hand angled away from her face. The knife in her throbbing arm hung down, and the monster grinned and approached. Quickly, Cass pressed her wounded arm to her chest and use that knife to protect her lower body. With her left arm, she awkwardly blocked a blow, twisting the knife so that she couldn't pull his sword out and strike again.

Thinking quickly, Cass dropped the knife in her right hand and grabbed the monsters wrist and held it while she stabbed it in the chest.

She leaned down, picked up her knife and kept running along, fighting. Cass sprinted around, not really having a purpose. She was always like this when she fought. She was random. She fought on impulse.

Cass lived to fight, she got huge adrenaline rushes and ran around fighting. Hacking. Stabbing. Killing. The arena didn't seem big enough for her. She exploded with energy, and her arm throbbed with a dull pain, and she knew it must have been serious, but she didn't stop.

The five pushed and stabbed their way through to the door, sprinting away from the arena. Thalia pulled the door open, and the other four filed out. Thalia followed them, and by then, Annabeth was leading the way, weaving themselves in between cell blocks. Annabeth found the other door leading to the halls ans they raced through. Quickly, the daughter of Athena navigated the halls, pulled open the door and pushed her friends into the circle room, before locking the door from the outside and following.

Breathing hard, Cass leaned over and gagged. She coughed a few times, then spit, straightened up and looked at her arm. It was a mess.

She knew it had been bad, but not that bad. It was cut to the bone, and the flesh was torn off gorily, blood falling uncontrollably. The dull pain had disappeared, replaced with a skull-splitting agony, worse then anything Cass had experienced before.

The trained medic forced herself to look at her arm, and she winced. It looked like road-kill. Nico and Andra glanced over while Annabeth bandaged Thalia's leg, which had been slashed at in the battle. "Do you have a bandage?" asked Andra.

Holding her right arm against her chest with her left, Cass nodded, and gestured to her left boot. Slightly confused, Andra unzipped the combat boot and peered inside. Three bandage rolls were tucked inside. "No just knives, I see," said Nico, obviously impressed. "You got ambrosia?"

Cass shook her head. "I left it in my tunnel."

"Why?

Cass looked at him funny, then, realizing that he hadn't been there, shook her head. "Never mind. It's not important."

"Well, anyway," he said, while Andra tenderly bandaged Cass's mangled arm. "Thanks."

"For saving you or for leaving my backpack in my tunnel?"

"Definitely the first one."

"Yes," said Andra, tying the bandage and pushing a way-ward strand of hair out of her face. She was prettier then Cass though she would be. "Thank you for rescuing me as well as Nico."

"No problem," said Thalia from a few feet over.

"So long as you don't tell Daddy," smiled Annabeth, finishing up with Thalia's bandage and standing up. She wiped her hands and rolled her shoulders. "Well, that was fun."

"Do demi-gods do this a lot now?"

"Trust me," said Thalia. "A lot has changed."

Cass smiled, and moved her arm a bit. What was left of her camp half-blood shirt was covered in her blood, a big wet spot that would stain brown, cooling her chest, and whatever wasn't on the shirt dripped uncomfortably down the front of her stomach, staining her tanned skin crimson. Her arm throbbed when she moved it, like the big toe of Fred Flintstone, and she knew she wouldn't be able to fight very well or shoot until it was heals. She cursed silently. How could she have been so careless?"

"What now?" Nico asked, rubbing a bit of monster guts off of his new sword with his shirt. The old bronze was uneven and rough, but it was better then nothing. His shirt stained slightly green.

Cass smiled, and moved her arm a bit. What was left of her camp half-blood shirt was covered in her blood, a big wet spot that would stain brown, cooling her chest, and whatever wasn't on the shirt dripped uncomfortably down the front of her stomach, staining her tanned skin crimson. Her arm throbbed when she moved it, like the big toe of Fred Flintstone, and she knew she wouldn't be able to fight very well or shoot until it was heals. She cursed silently. How could she have been so careless?"

"What now?" Nico asked, rubbing a bit of monster guts off of his new sword with his shirt. The old bronze was uneven and rough, but it was better then nothing. His shirt stained slightly green from monster insides, but he didn't seem to care.

"Hey guys?" asked Cass as she stood up. Nico grabbed her arm as she wobbled a bit. "Umm, not to be a buzz-kill, but, umm, how, if it's necessary, are we gonna get back outta here? You know, in case this whole thing turns in our favor."

Nico swallowed. They all remembered the story about the rope. There was only one. In Lord Hades's office. "Why don't we figure that out when the time comes?' suggested Nico nervously, and to his relief, everyone agreed.

"When the time comes," repeated Annabeth as she helped Thalia up. She gently tested her weight on her leg, and found if bearable. Thalia took a few practice walks around the room.

"Well, how 'bout we think about what happens next?" said Cass brightly.

"Like what?" asked Andra.

"Oh," Cass waved her non-twisted arm casually. "Just finding one of the many torture chambers that had one of our friends in it. Well, my friend, Annabeth's sorta boyfriend and Thalia and Nico's cousin, but anyway, we have to find him, get rid of Kronos, rescue him and get out of Tartarus and the underworld without starting the third Titan war."

Andra had nodded along for the most part, but had stopped when they had mentioned her father. "Why do we have to get rid of Kronos? Not that I'm complaining, but he's my father."

Annabeth looked at Andra and cocked her head to the left. "He's trying to possess my boyfriend and take his soul," she said coolly, but on the inside, she could barely contain her excitement. She had just called Percy her boyfriend! In public!

Andra swallowed. "Point."

Thalia finished her first lap, and sat down slowly. The rest followed. "That was a great plan Bethie, really," she praised. "But it has one minor hiccup."

Annabeth blinked her big gray eyes. "Yes?"

"Well, as I was painfully making my way around the room, I wondered how we were gonna pull off a major heist like this with a daughter of Zeus who can't walk and is scared of heights; an emotionally unstable daughter of Athena; a newbie daughter of Apollo, no offense, with a messed-up arm; Andra, the daughter of the man we all have it in for and want to have destroyed; and Nico. 'Cause you really don't need an explanation for him."

Her audience was quiet for a minute, letting her rant sink in. Finally, Annabeth cam up with a solution. "We'll figure it out."

Please review and fave my story. I'd like some feed back on that chapter, because it shows the beginning of their fighting style and is my longest, I think.


	17. Chapter 16

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter 16

"We'll figure it out," mumbled Cass as she walked behind the others. They were all following Annabeth and Nico, who had been voted as the leaders because of their experience. Thalia and Andra were close behind them, in some deep conversation, while Cass cradled her torn arm and wandered alone behind them all. She didn't mind.

So far, the 'figuring it out' the demi-gods mentioned hadn't been as great as Annabeth had made it seem. Cass had quickly learned that 'figuring it out' meant a lot of backtracking, stopping to consult a book or map, drawing something out on the dirt, and random guesses. Not that she was complaining. Cass didn't think she had a right to complain, really, because she had no better plan or suggestion, and she hated it when everyone looked at her when she spoke.

Thalia looked behind to Cass. She muttered something under her breath to Andra, who nodded and jogged ahead to Nico and Annabeth. Thalia let herself back up in Cass.

"Hey kiddo," said Thalia happily, noticing that Cass looked a bit upset.

"Can you not call me that?" asked Cass gently.

Thalia nodded slowly. "Sure. What's up?"

Cass shrugged, and Thalia was stumped, not sure how to interpret the shrug. So instead, she nodded, "I know what you mean."

Cass raised her head and looked to Thalia. "Really?"

Thalia cursed under her breath for lying, but, like the quick-thinking daughter of Zeus she was, who had a knack for lying, said, "Totally."

"But I thought hunters couldn't like boys," said Cass, her green eyes popping in the darkness. "There's a vow, isn't there?"

Thalia smiled. Bingo. "It was before."

"With Luke?"

Thalia braced herself for the pain that usually came with hearing _his_ name, but it never came. She guessed that some wounds really did heal. "Yes. With Luke." Then she shook her head. "But enough about me. You and Nico, huh?" she said, really hoping she was right, but doubting she was wrong because he was the only guy on the quest with them.

Cass sighed, and a bit of a blush rose on her cheeks. "Yeah. And I don't know why and that's what bugs me. I mean, I'm no daughter of Athena, believe me, I know that, but I can usually tell with these things, like with Marcus when I was ten and Brett when I was twelve. I could tell I like Marcus because he taught me how to climb the rock wall without falling and he was, like, the bravest son of Aphrodite. And Brett because he made me a bracelet in the forge."

"That's how you tell your in love?"

Cass reddened. "Not in love. In like. And anyway, I was ten and twelve, it's not like you can kiss and tell that you'll be with them for the rest of your life. But with Nico," here Cass lowered her voice, "I could just tell, and there was no reason, no proof, no logic behind it."

Thalia gave a longing smile. "Now, Lady Artemis might just murder me when we get back up, but for me, I fell into 'like' as you call it when I was twelve."

"Did Luke make you a necklace?"

Thalia chuckled, and patted her back. "No. I don't know when it happened really, but I think it was after we found Annabeth. I mean, we were only two years apart, and Annabeth was so young, we became like a family, you know, mother, father, daughter, and we played the roles, too. Both of us were so protective of Bethie, and Luke was protective of me and we both looked up to him, and sometimes I would wish that we would never meet Grover and we could just stay a family forever."

Cass inhaled and exhaled shakily. "When did that stop?"

Thalia looked to her, a small smirk on her face. "I never-" she paused and shook her head, then started again. "There's a reason I joined the hunters, and let me give you a hint- it's not for the immortality."

Cass smiled. "Aw, Thalia's in love,"she cooed.

Thalia pushed her shoulder a bit, causing her to walk off balance until she straightened herself up. "Don't push it, kid," said Thalia.

Cass grinned and nodded. "Hey, you have any idea where we're going?"

Thalia shook her head. "Oi! Up ahead. You guys got a clue what you're doing?"

"Oi?" asked Cass while Annabeth, Andra and Nico turned back and faced them and let them catch up.

Thalia shrugged, and met up with the three. "Do you?" she asked them.

With a sigh, Annabeth plopped down to the ground, and sat crossed legged. Her companions followed suite. Truthfully, Annabeth said, "No."

Thalia sighed, tracing her name in the dirt floor. "Didn't think so."

"So what are we doing?" asked Cass

"Walking around to make ourselves look productive," said Nico, only half-joking.

"It would be faster to split up," said Andra, blinking some dust out of her eyes, and stretching her hamstrings a bit.

"No," said Cass and Annabeth immediately. Nico and Thalia nodded. "We are not doing that again," said Cass. "I don't care if we're in tunnels or not, splitting up in general is a bad idea."

"What if we IM the gods, see if they know what to do. I bet your Dad could help," said Thalia to Nico desperately, tired of walking around to nowhere.

"That is the worst idea you have ever had," said Annabeth. "And that's saying something. We can't IM the gods. I mean, we could, but that's like admitting defeat, and I don;t want to do this. Come on guys, between us, we can figure this out."

"Stop messing around, Annabeth," said Nico. "We need help, this is serious."

Cass shook her head. "Don't take life too seriously. No one gets out alive."

Nico turned to Cass for a brief second with a smile, and Cass looked to her shoes, that, suddenly, were unbelievably interesting. Then Nico said, "While I agree with Cass, we're getting nowhere. We have no plan, no map, no nothing-"

"Double negative," muttered Andra to Annabeth.

Nico shot them an annoyed look, then continued, "We need to figure something out or we're gonna die searching for Percy."

"Or he'll die before we get to him," said Cass absentmindedly. Annabeth's mouth fell open and her lip trembled, and Cass rushed to apologize. "Sorry. I wasn't thinking.

"Obviously," said Nico, smirking a bit.

Silently, Annabeth grabbed some ambrosia from her backpack and offered it around. The demi-gods realized their hunger, and snatched some. Annabeth offered some to Andra, too, who took it graciously. They ate quickly, thoughtlessly going for seconds. They weren't really worried. There were three packs , each half filled with ambrosia and water bottles filled with nectar, which they passed around next. They limited it it four sips each, and when they were done, Annabeth packed up.

They looked around to each other. Cass yawned, but tried to cover it. Thalia saw, and took to opportunity to say, "Do y'all wanna camp here for a bit? And start again tomorrow? I haven't slept once the whole time we've been in the pit. What, five days?"

Everyone nodded, and they were each glad Thalia had suggested it. Using sweaters and backpacks as pillows, they divided up into two groups of and each group took one side of the hall they were in. "I'll take first watch," offered Andra, as she was an immortal, and didn't need much sleep. Everyone agreed with her, thinking it was a good idea, and settled down, feeling a little safer because there was an immortal keeping watch.

Thalia, for the past couple of years, had been quite lucky. She had rarely any demi-god dreams, and when she did, they were mild. But when she fell asleep next to Annabeth, the dream that came was worse then most.

She watched herself on the quest, walking thought the hall they were currently in. She memorized the turns they took, telling herself to remember so that she could tell her friends when she awoke. When they finally came to a stop, it was in front of a large set of wooden doors, with ornate carvings. There was a large number, written in cursive on the door, but her dyslexic brain couldn't make out the number. All she could tell was that it had four digits.

Screams were audible from her side of her door, and the voice from inside was calling out her name. Then Annabeth's. Then Nico's. The each of the Olympian gods. Then every person at camp half-blood Thalia could think of. And then the voice stopped. They were too late.

Thalia woke with a start, her chest pounding as she looked around for someone who was awake to talk to and comfort her. There was no one awake. And, oddly enough, no one keeping watch. Because there were only four people in the hall, and none of them were immortal. Because Andra was gone.


	18. Chapter 17

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter 17

_Thalia woke with a start, her chest pounding as she looked around for someone who was awake to talk to and comfort her. There was no one awake. And, oddly enough, no one keeping watch. Because there were only four people in the hall, and none of them were immortal. Because Andra was gone._

Thalia sat for a moment, her blue eyes wide, staring at the spot she'd last seen Andra. She blinked a bit, then shivered, because fear hit you in ever the hottest of places. She breathed in and out, telling herself that Andra hadn't left on purpose, and she'd been taken and the rest of them had been left untouched, but her reasonable side took over and she knew that that wasn't true.

She had that strange feeling she was being watched, so she looked to the wall behind her and down the hall both ways before turning to Annabeth and shaking her awake. She sat up and yawned, stretching her arms and asking sleepily, "Are we being attacked?" She groped around on the dirt beside her, reaching for her dagger.

"No," Thalia hissed. "But we will be if we don't get our butts outta here."

Annabeth blinked a few times and rubbed her eyes. "Why?"

Thalia's blue eyes flashed. "You, with your grand idea of bringing that damned daughter of Kronos with us. She's gone, Annabeth, she left us. What kind of bluff did you think she was? Of course she knew all about us and the tunnels. Kronos sent her, Annabeth, she's just part of his plan to get us all killed and we fell for it."

By now, Nico and Cass were up, and had been listening while Thalia talked. Nico shook his head. "No. Andra wouldn't do that. I know her."

"You didn't know her, you met less then a week ago." Thalia turned to her younger cousin and sighed, biting her lower lip to keep from screaming at him about how naïve he was being. "Anyone can lie, Nico." She turned to Cass. "I like your hair," she said.

Cass smiled and touched her mohawk. "Thanks," she said, before realizing what she had really said. "Oh, ha ha, Thalia, very funny."

Annabeth tugged at one of her blond curls, a nervous habit she had picked up from Cass. Her fingers fluttered over her gray streak, something she shared with Percy. Annabeth held onto the few strands of light silver colored hair there and squeezed tightly, holding on to all of Percy she had. "We should go. If Thalia's right, we don't have a lot of time. We have no idea when she left, or if she's reached Kronos yet."

When she said Kronos, Cass flinched. Thalia spotted her and recited, "Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself."

Annabeth beamed as she pulled her backpack over her shoulders and tightened the strap. "I knew you weren't asleep when we watched that! It was good, wasn't it?" she asked, taking a sip of sweet, golden nectar, enjoying the taste of chocolate chip cookies, like the kind Percy's mother made, and then offered the bottle around. No one took any.

Thalia sighed and put her own pack on. "Yes, fine, but I'm not watching the other seven movies. Or reading the books. Gods, even trying to see what was the play button and what was scene selection was difficult, Annabeth, and there's no way I'm reading seven books that are all at least three hundred pages of pure English."

Annabeth gave her a tight smile. "Fine. Where are we going?"

Thalia looked at each of them, looking right at their eyes. "I had a dream..."

_A Few Hours Before_

Then moment Andra was sure that everyone was asleep, she picked up her sword and ran. She remembered a bit of the halls from her first trip down here, so she picked the routes that seemed most familiar, but the rest was wild guessing.

Of course, she felt bad for leaving them, but she knew that there was a bigger chance of the big three making a fathers day card for her father then those demi-gods she'd been traveling with to win. She vowed to ask her father to spare them, but she didn't want to go back to that cell, and Andra knew that her father was bound to win.

She ran across a few monsters from time to time, who were roaming the halls, watching for any underworld intruders, but Andra just slowed time and passed them, a power she had never showed her former companions.

Andra hoped her father would be happy to she her. She knew that he had freed her from her cell, but she was sure it was just so that she could fight Nico, and probably not so that they could have a happy father-daughter reunion. Andra sighed. In means of parenting, Titans were even worse then the gods, not even sending their children help or answering their prayers. But, Andra was currently Kronos's only daughter, and she hoped her would take her in.

After an hour or so, Andra came across a torture chamber, the same one she'd seen in a dream she'd had nights and nights before. It was a large set of wooden doors on the outside, with ornate carvings. There was a large number, written in cursive on the door, a number Andra couldn't read, but she knew she was at the right door.

Nervously, Andra went to push it open, and then she stopped herself. She straightened her unruly hair and wiped some of the dirt of of her eternally dirty rag that she wore as a dress. She blinked her eyes a few times, clearing them of dust, and revealing the beautiful blue with gold. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open.

It swung open easily, and Andra realized that her father had been expecting her. She took a few steps in, nervously taking in the torturing tools hanging on the walls. There was a coppery smell in the air, and with horror, Andra realized it was blood. She wrinkled her nose discreetly, and looked around. To her left, on a torturing table, was a pale, raven-haired boy. His eyes were closed, but Andra bet everything that they were green, emerald green, and that the boy in front of her was Percy.

Andra felt a pang of guilt when she saw the man whose friends were searching so diligently for. With a sigh, Andra reached out to him, looking at the horrifyingly detailed carvings into his skin, so deep she could see the white bone underneath.

"I was wondering if you were coming," said a voice out of the darkness, and in fear, Andra jerked her hand back in fear and cradled it. Her eyes darted from one corner of the room to another, looking for the speaker, who she knew was her father.

From behind the torturing table, a dark figure came out, and, with a sharp intake of air, Andra knelt to the ground. She felt a rush of power as her father came closer; it was overwhelming after being so far away from him for so long. Andra tilted her head and looked at her father. Nico had described him as a twenty year old blond man, with blue eyes and a long scar on his face, but Kronos looked nothing like that. He had black skin, the skin of an African-American, with his gold eyes the only thing of contrast on his face. He looked ageless, old, but with no sign of aging or time, because he was time itself. He wore a black suit and tie, with a black dress shirt underneath. There seemed to be no blood on him, even though it was clear it was him who inflicted pain on his prisoners.

Andra shivered a little bit as he came closer, his large hand twisting over her head, lifting some of her dirty, stringy brown hair and rubbing it. Andra gasped, wondering is he was going to kill her, because it seemed very likely, and he had an endless access to tools to use.

He tapped her head, and all of the sudden, she was even again, standing over her mothers closed casket, cursing the world and illnesses, and having a bearded man take her to a place where she would be safe. Then she was nine, and was exiled from that place when her father was discovered. Then she was fifteen, and gathering her own army. And then she was eighteen, cursed to be immortal and live forever in Tartarus. Andra blinked a few times, and then gasped. She shuddered slightly, then didn't move.

The next thirty seconds were absolute agony for Andra as she waited, until finally, her father said, "Rise, Andromeda."

Andra blinked a few times. She had forgotten her real name, after so many years of being called Andra after no one could pronounce it. With a start, she pushed up and stood to her full height of five feet, pathetic in height to her father, who stood so powerfully before her.

She forced herself to look him in the eye, and when he stared at her, she squirmed uncomfortably. He could see everything. "I have to say, I was surprised when I found out you were here," he said. "How long has it been?"

"Almost five-" Andra started, talking so quietly she wasn't sure if her father could hear her.

"Five hundred years. Long time. You've been traveling with some demi-gods, I see," mused Kronos, pacing the room. Andra stood, frozen to that one spot, uncertain whether or no she should move. "False friendships, good, good."

Andra cleared her throat, and smoothed her tangled hair. A hangnail got caught in one of the knots, and angrily, she yanked it loose, leaving a jagged nail on her index finger, and half a nail left in her hair. "Lord Kronos? Father?"

Kronos turned to her, and raised his eyebrows, letting Andra know that she could speak. "Umm," she said, wondering how to start. "They're not really fake."

The time lord stopped pacing for a moment, then turned and continued. "So you wish for me to spare them."

Andra bit her lip nervously, and was surprised to see that, she licked her lips, she tasted blood. She licked them again, and then clamped her lips together, deciding that blood was a sign that biting was not a good idea. She sighed, and reasoned that truth, no matter how painful, would be the best solution. "Yes."

"And why would I do that?" Kronos's voice carried across the room echoing and making it seem like there was more then one of them.

Andra inhaled deeply. She expected her father was looking for something a little better then, "Because I'm your daughter," because he didn't really seem to care that they were related by blood. "Because I have information," she said, hating herself the moment she said it. "I know some of their plans, and what they're doing. I know weaknesses, and if you win because of the information I give you, would you please let them go free and let them live?" Then Andra blushed and ducked back, hoping she hadn't gone too far.

"If I win, I will let those demi-gods go free," said Kronos, with a bored sounding voice, like he was reading off a script for a kitty litter ad.

Andra beamed. "Really?", and her father looked to her with a surprised expression on his face, or at least, as surprised as you can be when you're a Titan.

"Don't believe me?" he asked, and Andra gasped nervously and shook her head so hard she was certain it would pop off.

"No my Lord. I mean, yes my Lord. I mean," Andra sputtered, staring at her father in fear. If there was one thing she'd learn from immortals with power, was that insulting them, or mentioning flaws was a bad idea. "I believe you, Father."

Kronos's face extorted into something that could be called a smile, and her waved his hand in the air. Two sleek silver chairs appeared on the rough ground. Kronos sat down gracefully in one, gesturing to Andra to sit in the other. She almost tripped as she walked to the chair, cursing herself and her clumsiness as she settled down into one of the chairs that balanced precariously on the rocky ground.

For a moment, Kronos didn't say anything, but only sat and watched Andra squirm. She was extremely uncomfortable, but if her father was, he didn't show it. Finally, he spoke, "So, Andromeda. What sort of information?"

**Kind of a cliffy there. So tell me, how'd you like the like the chapter? I want to put in some father-daughter bonding with Andra and Kronos, and I hope you liked it. I want to keep this story going slow paced, but let me know if you want it a bit faster, and have things move along faster, because I will if enough people say so. Please review. It only takes about one minute of your time and then you're back into the world of Fan Fiction, feeling so proud of yourself, because you made an authors day.**

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	19. Chapter 18

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter 18

_Thalia looked at each of them, looking right at their eyes. "I had a dream..."_

Annabeth, Nico and Cass listened intently as Thalia repeated everything she saw in her dream, her eyes tightly closed, her face squeezed up as she tried to remember the exact turns she had seen them take in her dream as Annabeth wrote furiously as Thalia spoke.

"And then, umm, and then it was a left, I think," said Thalia tightly, opening her bright blue eyes, and regarding her friends.

"You think?" said Annabeth worriedly, scratching out the 'left' she'd wrote on her pad of paper, and positioned the pen above the paper, ready to make a change. "Thalia, was it a left or not? 'Cause one wrong turn, and..."

"I know," said Thalia fiercely. "I get it, I know this isn't a game, it's just a little hard to remember every single thing."

Annabeth breathed in deeply. They hadn't left yet, but no monsters had shown up yet, so they weren't really worrying about it. They had pushed Andra to the back of their mind, and were focusing on Thalia, who seemed to get a bit antsy under pressure. Nico had already grown bored and was busing himself with reorganizing his backpack for the fifth time. "Sorry," said Annabeth, but her voice indicated that she wasn't at all.

"Why don't we just follow the earlier directions," suggested Cass as she stifled a yawn. "We know where to go for the first bit, and maybe it'll jog Thalia's memory."

Annabeth sighed. She wanted to have all of the directions before they started, but Thalia and Nico had already started to follow Cass's idea so she didn't say anything to contradict it.

Once they had gotten their bags on, Thalia pointed to the left, and Annabeth checked her paper and nodded. Thalia, with her lips together and her eyes bright, breathed in through her nose and nodded, more to herself then to anyone else. She walked ahead, her eyes darting from one wall of the hall to another, waiting for the first turn and hoping her memory would serve her well.

Just like in her dream, Thalia walked ahead, with Nico behind her, and Annabeth and Cass walking side by side behind him. And just like her dream, everyone and everything was quiet. After only a couple dozen seconds of walking, they came to the first turn. The hall only turned the one way, so there was no argument, unless one of them wanted to walk into a wall and emerge on the other side, exactly where they wanted to be without any harm done to them.

They walked all at the same pace, so the formation they walked in never faltered, not even when they turned. After a while, they came to a T-shaped intersection, and only Annabeth uttered a single word when they stopped. "Right."

The demi-gods marched along, like a small military group. It was a rare sight to see half-bloods, all with ADHD, walk so quietly without saying anything or doing something to keep themselves occupied. After a few minutes, of course, Cass felt her ADHD kick in. Her's wasn't as bad as, Thalia's per say, as she had started playing an awkward thumb war game without looking at her hands. Cass only lifted her fingers to where her hair used to be. When her fingers didn't get a grasp of hair, she sighed, and, biting her lip, lifted her hand a bit higher. She took hold of the inch long pieces of hair and tugged a bit. After a minute, she stopped, not even noticing the small bits of hair falling from her head, through her hand and to the dirt floor, disappearing instantly, mixing into the dirt and dust and being picked up by her footsteps.

They came to a few more intersections, most of them Thalia could remember, but on some, Annabeth had to check her paper. Nico watched as they turned each time, keeping track._ Left, Right, Right, Left, Right, Left, Left, Right._

Then, Annabeth spoke again, after we had made a few more lefts, and a right. "Guys, there are no more directions on here. Thals, do you remember anything else?"

Thalia's eyes darted back and forth, and her thumb war stopped after the left one covered the right in a hasty victory. She looked left and right, and then straight ahead, giving each of the three directions a good look. Then, she turned around and faced her friends. "I think," she said slowly, letting each word come out clearly. "I think it's straight ahead."

They all looked to Annabeth, who they had sort of elected leader of the quest because of her status as a daughter of Athena, and didn't say a word. Annabeth squirmed under their gaze, but licked her dry, cracked lips thoughtfully. "Nico?" she asked, not wanting to be the one to give authority to go the wrong way. Nico crossed his arms into an X shape and waved them in front of himself, saying that he either didn't care, or had the came worry as Annabeth. "What the Hades," she said. "I haven't a clue."

Nico shrugged and tilted his head to Thalia, who nodded and then kept walking straight ahead, not even giving the left and right paths a second glance.

Annabeth looked to Cass, who walked beside her. She was tugging at her hair, and feeling the need to do so, Annabeth followed her, and yanked on one of her pale yellow curls nervously, letting the small pit of pain at her roots try and cover up her worry. As they walked by the open doors of torturing chambers, Annabeth had to take a deep breath and remind herself that Percy was strong then the other people. In her head, she tried to list all of the things that he had done, things that she knew had to be worse then this. Things he had done when he was a lot younger. But they only made her more nervous as she thought of the help he had. The companions on quests, the gods, the warriors on his side. Now it was just him. Alone.

Soon, they came along doors that all had four digit numbers on them. A few of the doors were closed, and, because the door in the dream had been closed, the demi-gods stopped at each one and pressed their ears up against it, listening for whatever sound that would indicate Percy being in there.

_For a moment, Kronos didn't say anything, but only sat and watched Andra squirm. She was extremely uncomfortable, but if her father was, he didn't show it. Finally, he spoke, "So, Andromeda. What sort of information?"_

Nervously, Andra counted on her fingers as she listed off the things she'd heard from Cass, Nico, Thalia and Annabeth that might be of importance. Every time her father smiled, she flinched, and felt guilty for betraying her friends, but she only shook her head and continued, like a good daughter of Kronos should. She hoped her friends would understand, and she figured they would, even if they weren't happy about it. They understood what it was like to be shunned by their parents.

Every once and a while, a groan would erupt from Percy's side of the room, and her father would excuse himself to go and hit him or kick him to shut him up. Andra wasn't really sure exactly what he was doing, she preferred to look to her feet whenever he did it.

When she was done explaining, Kronos nodded, and Andra wondered whether or not she had enough information. After looking at her for a moment, Kronos said, "Impressive. Actually, that was helpful. You've done well."

Andra felt a pang of relief, and sighed. A small smile crept up her cheeks, and she had to clamp her lips together to keep herself from totally exploding, and shouting, "My dad's not gonna kill me! He's proud of me!"

"Thank you, my Lord," she said shyly, bursting with self-pride.

Kronos nodded to her, then checked his watch. It wasn't a normal watch, it showed the planets and stars moving around, all black and gold. "It's time," he said, an evil grin slowly creeping over his face, and Andra looked around nervously.

She watched as Kronos walked over to Percy and put his hand on his broken, bloodied chest. Andra saw her father glow a bit, look a bit more powerful, but when he removed his hand, the glow didn't fade. She noticed with a gasp that Percy looked worse. With a laugh, Kronos kicked Percy's side, and Andra inhaled deeply through her nose, and then smiled. She felt a bit sick when she realized it, but she was proud of her father. She bit her lip again, in the same spot as last time, and lapped up the blood with her tongue, feeling a bit evil, a bit raw. She grinned. She kind of liked it.

She stood up, examining the pale, fragile body of the son of Poseidon. Andra knew in her heart that she couldn't be on two sides. She knew that she would have to choose. And she wouldn't betray her father. What daughter would? She smiled, and walked beside her father. Forget about the gods, those stupid demi-gods. She was a demi-Titan, for Zeus's sake, a daughter of Kronos. And she was not going to lose. That, she was sure of.

Percy felt Kronos's boot hit his side fiercely, and his winced as his rib pushed against the one that was already cracked, and the one that he could tell was broken. For a while there had been two voices, and he was sure one was female. His mind immediately went to the only girl he remembered, when he heard the other voice. Someone with blond hair. One gray streak, the same color as her eyes. The smell of strawberrys. The rest was just a blur, even his father he couldn't remember, he was just someone powerful, Percy knew that. Percy wasn't sure how many times he'd been kicked or hit in the head, but he knew his brain wasn't working properly anymore. He wanted to laugh at the irony. He really was a Sea-weed Brain now, a name he knew had importance, but he couldn't remember why.

He couldn't really feel him arms or legs anymore, and he couldn't really tell if they were attached anymore, only the dull pulsing pain where they attached let him know that they were still there. The scythe on his chest was burning, a pain that was hotter then red, hotter then black, it was white, a searing white pain that thickened whenever Kronos came closer to him. Percy could tell the scythe was some sort of magic, some sort of curse, and he knew that the letters and words carved around his chest were too, he just didn't know how. The letters burned too, but not as much, the letters, actually, felt nice compared to the rest of his body, that was all broken. They were a cooler, they cooled his heated body, and it was nice, almost.

Kronos talked a bit, to the mysterious girl. He wished he could see her, but his eyes were forced shut by dried blood, and even the dark of the cave was too bright for him now. Percy's ears didn't register everything, but, he'd heard say names, names of people that triggered memories. Annabeth. Thalia. Nico. Not strong memories, but their looks, a bit, and the sound of their voice. And another one. Cass.

Percy repeated the name in his mind. Cass. Cass. Cass. Sort for something. Probably Cassiopeia, or Cassandra. Did he know her? Was she important to him? He strained his brain, but nothing came to mind, and he wished that he had never stayed on Olympus. Percy hated the way he was, so immobile, and so weak and helpless. He hated himself for thinking this, but he wished it had been Thalia, or Nico who had been taken. Why did it always have to be him? He was tired of playing hero, tired of always having to bounce back and save the world. Tired of the gods using him as a play toy, holding him in front of them like a human shield, so that they wouldn't have to do anything. Percy cursed under his breath, every curse he knew. Swearing in English, Latin, Greek, and the small bit of French and Spanish he remembered from school. Why did it always have to be him?

There were footsteps, lighter then Kronos's, so it must have been the girl that he was so longing to see. The footsteps faded, and then were gone completely. Heavier ones came to him, and Percy tried to escape the laughter that came whenever he flinched. He wished he could see what Kronos was doing. And then a hand rested on his chest. And then pushed, up and down, up an down, pounding his chest. He felt his cracked ribs break, and his whole ones crack.

It was infinite pain, more horrible then falling from Mt. St. Helens, more heart-wrenching then seeing the blond girl almost die, that kind of chest-thumping, heart pounding throb that made Percy want to kill himself to get out of the misery. He writhed in pain, and usually, after this happened, Kronos let go and laughed, but this time, the laughter came and the hand remained, and Percy sobbed, choking on tears that he couldn't let out, and is throat closed up in that way it did when your tears and snot mixed together and cause that annoying unable-to-breath feeling. If his eyes had been able to open, he would have been crying, and as he screamed, his voice cracked pitifully, and he hated himself for it.

His ears throbbed as the laughter mixed with his screams, and everything kept getting louder and louder, until suddenly, he couldn't hear anything, it was just a white fuzz, like when the T.V. Is out of reception, or when you turn it on, forgetting you've forgotten to pay you bill. Percy screamed louder, but he couldn't hear himself, and he wondered if he was really was yelling anymore, or if it was just his imagination.

A then, miraculously, for a brief moment, he remembered everything, and he yelled it out, his throat burning as he did, feeling his vocal chords scrape against his throat, protesting with every fiber of their being, hoping that someone would hear and find him. He screamed and shouted and cried as it felt as if his insides were being pulled out. The names he called; there were so many. Thalia. Annabeth. Nico. All twelve Olympian gods. His friends from Camp Half-Blood. He hoped he was shouting loud enough, but he couldn't tell. And then it was over. It was black. His body fell limp as his soul disappeared, re-appearing in the body of the Titan lord. Kronos closed his eyes and pushed the dead body to the floor. When he opened his eyes again, they were green. Emerald green.

They had found the door. Thalia dreaded what would happen next, they all did; Thalia had told them about the rest of her dream. They waited for a moment, ears pressed to the door in anticipation. Their breathing was shallow, they strained themselves, trying to listen in on the sobs to see if they would be translated into words. And then screams came, and it was the worst sound in the world. The four demi-gods desperately beat at the door as the crying and yelling thickened, and the air was full of it. Cass waved her hands in the air, beating at nothing, yelling, "Make it stop!" to no one in particular. Eventually, she just put her hands to her ears.

And then the screaming stopped. And the names began. Thalia, Nico and Annabeth all heard their names first, and Thalia hit Cass's shoulder and she removed her hands from her ears to listen. Cass heard her name later on, in between Katie, and Selina, who they all knew as dead. Annabeth sobbed as she heard him call out the names of the dead. _Did he not know that they were no longer alive? Did he no longer remember being on that ship_, she wondered as he shouted out Beckendorf's name. _Did he not remember her?_ They yelled and pounded at the door with their fists, screaming and yelling, pulling at the damned door handle and trying to yank it free.

"No!" Percy's strained voice yelled, stretching out the 'o' for a long period of time, and Thalia and Annabeth yelled it too, along with slapping and banging the door until their hands turned red and raw, but they didn't stop.

And then the screams stopped. The half-bloods waiting outside did too, instantly, because they all knew what it meant. They didn't speak, for fear of Kronos coming out and finding them and killing them like he did Percy, an also in respect for their friend. They closed their eyes and held in sobs as a horrible laughter filled the air. Nico shook a bit as the laughter continued. It wasn't normal laughing. It was the laugh of an insane person, someone evil and awful. It was the laugh of the Titan lord Kronos.

**Kind of a cliffy there. Well, not really, 'cause you know what happened, but it has cliff-hanger qualities. So tell me, how'd you like the like the chapter? I want to keep this story going slow paced, but let me know if you want it a bit faster, and have things move along faster, because I will if enough people say so. Also, I'd like to know if my characters are to out of character. I really appreciate constructive criticism. **

**Also, I wanna know who reading is a fan of either Hedley, Marianas Trench, All Time Low or Imagine Dragons, 'cause who ever is gets mentioned in the next chapter. (I wrote this chapter to Radioactive, It's time, Rocks, Working man and My fault by Imagine Dragons)**

**Please review. It only takes about one minute of your time and then you're back into the world of Fan Fiction, feeling so proud of yourself, because you made an authors day.**

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	20. Chapter 29

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter 19

Kronos stretched out his hands, wiggling his his fingers and rolling his shoulders back powerfully. He took a few deep breaths, and looked around, seeing the world from Percy's perspective. It was unsettling, the Titan Lord had never done anything like this before, and it was an odd feeling. He had all of Percy's memories, but none of his thoughts like he did with Luke. Kronos stretched out his hand and waved it, feeling time slow around him. He had more power in this form, more then he did when he ruled, all those years ago, in his own body.

Kronos waved his hand and his reflection appeared on the rock. He examined his new eyes. The green showed up against his dark skin even better then gold had, and Kronos felt that they had a certain level of horror and fear in them. They were a bit brighter then his normal taste, but they would have to do. He made a note to himself, that if he did it again, he would see if he could keep his own eyes. The Titan swiped through the image of himself, and it disappeared into a cloud of mist that evaporated in the intense heat of Tartarus.

He turned to the empty shell of a body laying on the ground. The formerly tanned skin had turned pale over the boys time in the underworld, and now, that nothing inhabited the skin, it had turned clammy and cold. The Titan knelt beside what used to be Perseus Jackson, and pressed his hand to the small forehead. Kronos moved his hand down the face, and onto Percy's chest, tracing the scythe scar, burned into his skin, by Kronos's own hand. Kronos pressed it once, twice, then rose up. He had grown another couple inches in human height thanks to the transformation. On Percy's chest, the scythe pulsed and glowed, until the glow rose from him and grew to the full-sized scythe. It flew into Kronos's hand, knowing his master. Kronos wrapped his hand around it lovingly, looking to Percy. The scythe mark was still on his chest, but not as bright.

Kronos looked to his left and at the large double doors that led to the outdoor hallway in Tartarus, what he called his underground palace. He could tell that the young boys rescue group was waiting outside. The Titan Lord suppressed a small smile. He would leave them there, let them open the doors and grieve over their friend. He knew it was the least he could do. After all, he would be tearing them and their puny little god friends to pieces in only a few short hours. He had a plan, and they wouldn't get in the way.

The Titan Lord picked up the young boys body and placed him gently on the table, in a position that suggested absolute pain and suffering. Percy's eyes, once so bright green and full of joy, had darkened over his time with Kronos, and now that Kronos had his soul, his eyes were almost black. The Titan pressed two of his fingers on the eyelids of the boy and closed his eyes. He would let his little friends come in and cry over the body. He wouldn't interrupt them.

Kronos looked back to the doors again and waved his hand. He heard a small click, and the lock fell to the ground with a dull thunk on the ground. The Time Lord glanced around the room quickly, before retreating into the shadows and disappearing into black mist.

Outside, Thalia had been pushing on the door as hard as she could, and she fell forward in surprise when it swung open easily. Thalia steadied herself, and stepped back cautiously, her wounded leg burning a little bit as she put too much pressure on it, but Annabeth ran forward into the room and looked around with a frantic expression, Cass and Nico following close behind. Thalia took a deep breath before entering as well. Cass, with her one hand strapped to her body, lifted her good hand to her head and tugged at a few hairs.

Annabeth did a complete circle of the room, not noticing the torture table, semi-covered in darkness. Her intimidating gray eyes scanned the jagged walls full of chains and whips and bloodied knives and other assorted weapons and torturing devices. "Where is he?" she asked, sounding way too loud in the very quiet room. Her voice had an echo to it, and it bounced around the room, landing in each of the three other demi-gods ears.

"Kronos or Percy?" asked Cass, licking her cracked lips and peering around the room, her eyes wide with either interest or fear. It was hard to tell, because they both looked rather similar.

Annabeth whipped around, her blond curls coming loose out of the already messy braid she'd put them into. "Percy," she hissed, worry evident on her face.

"Umm, Annabeth? I think I found him," said Thalia nervously with Nico beside her, craning her neck over the bloody metal table at the pale raven-hair boy laying there, unmoving.

The daughter of Athena almost raced over to the table, and with one look at the broken body on it, let out a sting of curses in Ancient Greek so old, only the Gods would know. "Damn," she ended with, her bluish gray eyes shining with tears that threatened to over run onto her cheeks.

Cass wandered over to the table, strolling slowly, like she was on a walk in the park. Cass had a funny way of making everything a bit more casual, especially when it shouldn't be. With her good hand, she lifted her bow off from around her chest, and let it fall to the floor. When she saw what was left of Percy, laying on the hard, steel colored table, she gasped. "Oh my."

Annabeth nodded slowly, like she was in molasses. "Yeah."

Nico swallowed slowly. "So, Percy, he's umm, he's in..."

"Kronos," offered Thalia. Nico nodded to her and continued. "Kronos. Yeah, him."

"Gods," Annabeth said, the dam holding back the tears breaking and letting them all loose. Her cheeks shined and she wiped them away with the back of her hand, only for them to be quickly replaced. "We're too late."

Cass's heart-rate quickened, and when because her hair was so short, her neck was exposed and everyone could see her veins as she breathed harder. "I jinxed it, didn't I? I made a stupid joke and now it's come true. It's my fault."

Thalia patted her back once, twice, three times before saying, "It's not your fault. Trust me. If someone's soul went into a Titan every time some one made a joke..." she trailed off, and Annabeth let out a thick, short laugh.

"What are we gonna do?" asked Nico suddenly, and everyone turned to him. Once he had everyone's attention, he continued, "I mean, we've been here for almost five minutes, and Kronos hasn't come back yet to kill or capture us. He's not here."

"What do you mean?" asked Annabeth, wiping at her tears, and trying desperately to stop them. She blinked a few times and lifted her head up to the sky, trying to use gravity to pull them back. Thalia sat down beside her and started re-wrapping her leg in new bandages that Cass had grabbed for her from her cornucopia of items in her combat boots.

"The war. Why else wouldn't he be coming back?"

"Holy Grail, finally," said Thalia, too sarcastic and out of place to be of any help. They all ignored her, and didn't look down to meet her eyes.

Cass's eyes, if possible, got even bigger. The green shone in the dark and her face had a hollow, eerie look to it. "But it's only," she checked her watch, tapping it a few times, and wiping the dirt at grime off it, "September 10th. The war can't happen yet, unless it lasts until late December."

"Nico's right," hiccuped Annabeth. She sniffed a few times. "What about his body?" she whispered suddenly, and everyone looked to the small, pale body, with nothing in it. No one said anything. "We can't just leave it here!" shouted Annabeth, using Thalia shoulder to help her get up.

"What can we do with it?" asked Nico. "It's not like I can strap him to my back and fight with him there, Annabeth, and we can't just leave him there."

"Hermes!" Cass shouted out unexpectedly.

"Yes?" asked Thalia, drawing out the 'e' sound. "He's a god," she said, like Cass didn't know.

"He's the god of messengers, right? And he delivers the dead to the underworld, instead of Thanatos," said Cass

"Because he started going crazy and taking people down here when they weren't dead yet, so now it's Hermes. He's not too happy about that. Too much extra work," added Nico.

Annabeth nodded. "Well, _Thanatos_ does mean 'killing instinct'. And the Ancient Greek word Thanatos does mean _Death_."

"Exactly, Nico, and Annabeth, we are all quiet fluent in Ancient Greek, thank you very much. But that's not my point. If Hermes brings the dead from up above to the underworld, doesn't it make sense to bring the live people up above?"

"You mean us?" asked Thalia. "Have him bring us home? To camp or to Olympus?"

"No," Cass rolled her eyes. "Percy. He's not dead yet. His souls is just in another body." Then she gasped. "Annabeth. Remember when you explained all that monster stuff to us? Like how, if you kill a monster, he can die, but his soul is still out there? And you told me that if you put a sword through me, my soul would be fine?"

Annabeth nodded. "Yeah. I told Percy that too, on his first day," she said slowly and sadly, and Cass felt responsible for bringing it up, but she didn't care right now.

"Just because Percy's soul isn't in his body doesn't mean he's dead! So we can get Hermes to transport him once we get out of Tartarus, and bring him back to camp."

"He can get the demi-gods too. We won't be able to do this alone," added Thalia excitedly, her battle DNA from her father shining through.

"Do we need the gods?" asked Nico.

"I don't know," answered Annabeth. "What if they die?"

Cass turned to her to her. "They can't die," she said coolly.

"The prophecy says so. _Try they will, but fail they must, The gods will die, there is no trust. _And it says we fail. I don't want either to happen, but what if the only way for us to survive after we fail is for the gods to come and die."

Cass felt a shiver run up her back. This was real, and the reality of it all came crashing into her like a tidal wave. Her breath caught in her throat and she nodded. "Okay. If you think that's what we need." Very suddenly, Cass felt very small, in front of all the great demi-gods, and one who had survived for so long, enduring pain she couldn't even imagine. She really had no idea what she was doing. She had only left camp for the winter solstices, and for the second Titan war. She bit her lip, and decided that she would just stay quiet.

"How will we contact Hermes?" asked Thalia sadly, gazing at her cousin, laying so helplessly there. Her hated seeing him that way. One of her pale, slender hands crept over to his face and gently pried open his eyes. She gasped in horror when she saw them. They weren't a joyous bright sea-green anymore. They were almost completely black. She gave them a long, hard look, see no trace of happy green. She closed them discreetly. No one needed to see these.

"Anyone got a drachma?" asked Nico, stuffing his hands into his pockets and searching them. Annabeth did the same, as did Thalia.

"I've got lint," said Thalia, pulling it from her pocket and making a show of dropping it to the ground. Her face was hard. She couldn't get Percy's eyes out of her head.

Annabeth puled her hands out of her pockets. "Nothing," she said, doing the same as Thalia and dropping nothing to the floor.

Nico shook his head and turned to Cass, whose hand was currently orbiting her left back pocket. With a small smile, she pulled one, and, placing it on her thumb, flipped it up and into Nico's hand. "Here."

"Mist?" said Thalia after Nico grabbed the large golden coin from Cass. "Isn't that kind of important in this whole process?"

Annabeth's eyes darted from side to side. "Spit would work. I'll evaporate in seconds in this heat, and we could use that." Annabeth rubbed her hand over her arm, it was slick with sweat. She hadn't realized how hot it was down there.

Thalia pursed her lips and nodded. "All right Nico. Spit."

Nico waved his hands in a X formation. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why me?"

" 'Cause this is clearly a guy thing to do."

Nico sighed and spit. The glob of moisture flew through the air, and immediately, the particles in it began to split. With Annabeth's reflexes as quick as ever, she chucked the coin in, and all four of them shouted as loud as they could, "Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept out offering. Show us Lord Hermes, god of Travelers!"

The pieces of spit formed a screen, and and fuzzy image came through. "Lord Hermes?" shouted Annabeth, knowing that reception would be bad down there in the underworld, and even worse in Tartarus.

The god on the screen squinted. "Annabeth?"

"Yes!" she shouted. "Can you come down here? Please?" she added, knowing that gods liked when you were polite. "It's hard to explain."

Hermes looked at something, Annabeth was sure it was his phone. "I have a ten minutes gap. Sure. I'll find you." And then the screen went dark and then disappeared completely.

Cass looked at the screen. "If he helps us," she mused. "He might just bump Hades to second place."

No one but Nico understood that, but he bumped her shoulder and smiled to her. Cass bumped back and grinned. Their smiles faded when their eyes traveled to Percy's body. Nico wiped at his mouth. "Well, that was disgusting. I just talked to a god through my spit."

"Excuse me?" asked a voice from behind them.

They all turned and a sigh of relief left each of them. "Lord Hermes," said Cass, a large smile spreading across her face.

The god looked from their ripped clothes, to their dirty faces and matted hair, to the bandages on Cass's arm and Thalia's leg, and around the room they were in. His gaze finally landed on Percy and a small breath left the god. "My, you've been busy," he said.

_When you feel my heart_

_look into my eyes_

_that's where my demons hide_

_that's where my demons hide_

-Imagine Dragons

**Keep reading and reviewing, Thank you very much.**

**I don't own PJO**

**Thanks to all my lovely little readers. **


	21. Chapter 20

A Whole new Beginning

Chapter 20

Annabeth Chase, Nico di Angelo, Thalia Grace and Cassandra Summers stood in complete silence in respect for their friend as they watched the messenger god lift Perseus Jackson onto his shoulders. The wings on the gods sandals sprouted, and the white feathers on the flapped in the hot underworld heat. The four demi-gods stood at the edge of the pit of Tartarus, after being rescued. The mysterious black fog had lifted. They lifted their heads as lord Hermes did, their eyes following him as he flew with Percy strapped to his back, up and away from the underworld, with promise to send back the demi-gods and gods, ready for war.

After they could no longer see him, Thalia let out a sigh, something she'd been holding in ever since Hermes had air-lifted them out of Tartarus. Hermes had given them strict orders. Nico was to bring Thalia to Hades's palace to let him know of the war so he could give the gods permission to enter the underworld, as gods could only enter each others domains wit permission, with the exception of Hermes. Cass and Annabeth were to guard the entrance to Tartarus, where every monster formed and reformed. "I'm not sure how they'll get up, seeing as there's only one rope, but I know they'll find a way," Hermes had told them.

Nico took a deep breath and was the first one to say something. "Alright. Thals and I will go in. I'll shadow travel there, but we'll need to run back. I won't have the energy to do it twice, unless my dad decides to be helpful. You two guard that thing with your life..."

"Or we won't have a life to guard," said Cass fiercely. She stretched her arms. Hermes had healed her wounded arm, saying she'd be needing it, as well as Thalia's leg. "We get it, this isn't our first war, di Angelo, I think we can handle watching over a pit."

Nico nodded approvingly. "We better get going. If the monsters come, Summers, you better kick some ass. You too, Chase."

Cass smiled at the sudden use of last names. To her, it seemed very military-like, but when Nico did it, it seemed very personal, almost intimate. Thalia grabbed onto Nico's arm, and as they were about to run into the shadows, Cass called out after him, "It'll be your ass I'm kicking if you don't come back soon." And then they were gone.

Annabeth tensed. She blinked a few times, then looked down the pit. "Nico was right. I wouldn't of jumped that thing for a million drachmas if I had seen that when we were up here last." Cass joined her and peered down, the smell of decay and blood reaching her nose even up that far.

"Gods," she said. "That's one messed up tunnel." She squinted, trying to see the bottom, but all that was in her vision was fog. "One messed up tunnel," she repeated.

"It's worse inside," said Annabeth darkly, her gray eyes scanning the walls of the pit. Even up there they were covered in blood. Annabeth didn't want to know how.

"I was there," said Cass looking over the pit with a glazed look in her eye. Nothing she had trained for had prepared her for the sight of a dead, tortured body. And she knew that this war was nothing like anything she'd done before.

Cass pulled out her bow and stretched the string a bit, testing her healed arm a bit. She looked down to her shirt. The blood had stained the orange a crimson color, and had covered the white letters that told all who looked t it that the wearer was a proud member of Camp Half-Blood. It was slightly cooler up there, at least, cooler then the underworld, and Cass shivered in her ripped clothes, regretting her decision to go slightly crazy and cut all the fabric off.

The daughter of Apollo and the daughter of Athena perched on the edge of Tartarus, hands planted firmly on the ground and each other for fear of falling back into the hell-hole. Annabeth pulled her bronze dagger out, and Cass glared at it, looking at the cursed dagger.

"Say," said Annabeth. "Do you have a knife I could borrow?"

Cass smiled and reached into her boot. She pulled out a bronze dagger slightly longer then Annabeth's current one. It was beautifully engraved and was shiny and sharp. "I don't use this one anymore, now that I got my hunting knives. Feel free."

Annabeth snatched it out of her hand and tested it, flipping it from on hand to another. "I like it," she said, slipping it into her sheath, and looking at Luke's. "I've had enough trouble from you," she said to it, and, with one last look, she held it over Tartarus and let it drop.

Cass leaned over and watched the knife bounce off a few jagged rocks before disappearing down the black hole that was Tartarus. "Good idea," she said leaning back and looking up at the black sun.

Annabeth opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it. Cass looked to her. "Humor me," she said. "We could be here a while."

Annabeth took a deep breath, and searched her mind for a good place to start. "What if this isn't the end. What if this is the start of something bigger?"

"What do you mean?"

"Global warming, the Apocalypse. Anything could happen. You know about the polar ice caps. They're melting. That could all have something to do with this. You know it's strange that it's all leading up to this point. It could happen, and we'll be fighting a war right while it's going on, something so much bigger. What if we should be preparing for a war against something else? Like freezing cold, or extreme heat?"

Cass bit her lower lip. "Look, Bethie. I'm freaked out enough as is. This is my first quest, and if we survive this, we can think about surviving that. I believe you, believe it or not, all that weather stuff is kinda fascinating to me. If we win this war, and get out of this all, I swear on the river Styx that I'll go with you to the gods to talk about this. But, for now, let's just take this one step at a time."

Annabeth beamed at her, and wiped a thick layer of sweat beads that had formed on her forehead. "Thank you," she said, and Cass looked at her with a smile.

"Anytime."

The two friends sat in silence. Silence, they decided, was something that was uncommon for a demi-god, and they should take advantage of it. Then, there was a loud blast from behind them, and Annabeth sighed. Silence was golden, but gold, she discovered, was quiet rare.

Cass and Annabeth turned around and looked up. There, a few feet in front of them, stood Lord Hades, god of the dead, looking like some creepy lead singer of a hard core rock band with his long black hair and purple and gold flaming eyes. Goth-looking Nico and punk Thalia stood beside him, looking like his entourage.

"Come to help?" asked Annabeth bravely, looking up at Hades. She knew, under normal circumstances, she would be blasted to bits. But this was no normal circumstance.

The god of the dead appraised her. "Maybe, Ms. Chase."

A loud growl came from the pit. "I guess they're coming up," said Thalia, her voice cracking at the last bit, nervously. Annabeth peered over the edge, then recoiled, a horrified look on her face.

"How many?" asked Cass.

"A lot," said Annabeth, wrapping her hand around the borrowed dagger.

"And how many is that?" asked Nico. "As far as I'm concerned 'a lot' isn't exactly a number. As a daughter of Athena, I expected you to know that." It would of sounded condescending coming from anyone but Nico, but when he said it, it was normal.

Hades's expression turned from steel hard to rock hard as he looked at his son with a slight smirk. Annabeth tilted her head from side to side as she thought. "Every monster from the past two wars along with every single bad guy from Greek mythology. And that's just the first hundred feet in my vision. It gets all dark and creeping and foggy further down. I'm gonna assume there are some more coming."

Nico sighed and drew his silver sword. "Good assumption. Here comes trouble."

"Trouble's my middle name," said Cass coolly, rolling her shoulders back and spitting in a very masculine way. Thalia grinned.

"Really? I thought it was Painintheass," countered Nico.

Cass grabbed a long dagger from her left boot. She aimed down the pit and dropped it. It went through killing three monsters before it went off course. She grinned wickedly, and Nico could see a fire of passion in her eyes. This was her life. "That's my Greek name."

"Whoa. Back up there," said Annabeth. She looked down again. "They had ropes. They're getting up by ROPES! Nico! You said there was only one!"

Nico;s mouth fell open and he looked from his father to Annabeth and back again, his head turning a mile a minute. "How in the Hell?" asked Hades slowly. "There's only one rope," he said.

Cass swallowed. "With all due respect, my Lord," said Cass. "There appears to be more then one." Cass looked down again, and counted quickly. "More then fifty."

Thalia grinned at her. "Yo! Hades! We got an army coming in here. Both sides," she added. "You gave permission to the gods?" Thalia yelled out with the authority of a daughter of Zeus.

Hades nodded, drawing his sword out. He looked to Nico, who did the same. Together, the father and son plunged their swords into the dry, cracked dirt ground of the underworld. The ground rocked as the king and prince of the underworld concentrated. All around them, skeleton soldiers rose. Fighters from WWI, and WWII, current military officers, warriors from every country and continent, every man who had died fighting in history.

Cass had her mouth open in awe. "Nice hat," she said to a military officer who had rose beside her. The skeleton grinned, and Cass recoiled back a bit, but the skeleton only took off the cloth hat and placed it on her head. Cass smiled. She adjusted the hat on her head, and looked excitedly to Nico. He nodded to her, as did Hades. "Go ahead," Hades said.

"Alright, troops," she commanded, only a few strands of hair sticking out from underneath her new hat. "Let's kick some monster ass."

"Can't wait," a voice called out from behind the skeletons. They parted to reveal the most amazing thing the four demi-gods had ever seen. Every demi-god they knew, standing in complete battle armor with a butt load of weapons strapped onto them. In front of the was the owner of the voice, Clarisse la Rue. Behind them were cyclopes, dryads, sayters, and every Greek mythological creature that had ever fought on the good side. Behind them were minor gods, standing proudly behind the gods, who wore expressions of hope and power on their faces.

Annabeth opened her mouth in awe, but nothing came out. Conner Stoll spoke for her. "Duck!" he yelled, and Nico turned then tackled Annabeth to the ground as a precisely aimed arrow flew just where her neck and been only moments before.

The four demi-gods and Hades turned and faced the largest army of monsters they had ever seen, breaching over the edge of every side of the pit, coming towards them.

"Holy Hera," whispered Cass. She then whipped her head around, her hand on her cap so it wouldn't fly off. She gave the queen of Olympus an apologetic smile before grabbing her bow off from around her chest, and positioning a sleek arrow in her hand. She adjusted it, and pulled back, bringing the bow up close to her eye. She saw and monster in her view, and she tensed. "You heard me," she said, and the sound of thousands drawing weapons rang in everyone's ears. Archers positioned themselves in front of the others. Swords were in front of children no more then ten. Knifes and daggers were held protectively in front of many. "Let's kick some ass," said Cass coolly before letting go of the arrow.

And then all Hades broke loose.


	22. Chapter 21

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter 21

Nico wasn't sure his heart had ever beat faster. He watched with admiration as Cass called out orders, and saw her arm muscles tense as she released her arrow. To Nico, it seemed to be in slow motion as it twirled through the air and pierced the eye of the first monster that had rose. It disintegrated into worthless dust, back down to Tartarus where the monster would reform.

Cass turned to him, her big green eyes bright. She waved her hand to him. All of the sudden, the slow motion was over and sound roared in his ears. The noise of more then a thousand people yelling battle calls and curses rang through out the underworld. Nico tightened the grip on his sword and ran towards Cass, who had switched from bow and arrow to hunting knives in a matter of seconds.

They met in the middle of a crowd of monsters, right near the pit of Tartarus. The military hat with its camouflage pattern was placed jauntily on her head. She had a certain look of authority to her, maybe because she stood so confidently without armor, or maybe because she had a look on her face that suggested that she could win the war with her bare hands.

Nico saw all of the sweat on her face, and saw it glistening on her arms and legs. Her stomach went in and out as she breathed hard, already fighting exhaustion.

Cass and Nico fought back to back. Nico held his gleaming silver sword while Cass held a small bronze dagger that she had grabbed from her boots, after switching from her hunting knives.

Nico kept looking around as he fought, making sure Cass was a reasonable distance from the pit. One wrong step and they'd fall to Tartarus. Kronos had yet to show up for battle, but they all expected him, you could tell by the looks in their faces.

All of the fighters around him had arrived only minutes before, and already, the battle was raging. He saw fear wiping over even some of the bravest people he knew as everyone was overwhelmed by the sea of monsters approaching faster then anything they'd every seen before.

The gods were using as much power as they could without using their true form, their most powerful one. None of the demi-gods had ever fought beside a god before, and you could see in their weapon wielding that they were a bit nervous.

Zeus shot lightning down from the sky, and Cass wondered how he got it to come down to the underworld. Athena and Aphrodite had turned into their sacred birds, and a dove and an owl flew around fighting flying demons and monsters that rose fro the depths of Tartarus. Poseidon created mini-earthquakes, keeping them controlled in the area he wanted them too. Hades used his mind power over every soul in the underworld. Hephaestus had set up a defense line around Hades palace, and Persephone, Hera and Apollo were set up in Persephone's garden as a make-shift hospital. Ares and his children ran into battle like immortals, fearless and brave. Demeter created an army from plant life, and they defended the weak while they ran to cover. Hestia used her power over flames to keep monsters away, burning them and using the heat hotter then the deepest part of Tartarus to send them back to the pit. Hermes and Artemis used their speed and fighting abilities to help demi-gods.

The battle stretched out to Hades palace, over the fields of Punishment, and Asphodel. The distance seemed shorter, and maybe it was, maybe it had done so magically for the sake of the war, but Cass didn't know what side it was helping more.

Cass swiped at a serpent monster, a small layer of sweat glistening on her forehead. Another beast soon took it's place, and she sighed. This was her third real war. She was used to all of this. She loved it, really, but it was tiring.

She looked over and scanned the crowd. "They need some help over there," she said to Nico. "Back in a flash." And, before he could say anything, she was gone. Nico took a deep breath and followed her.

Cass ran in between people fighting and helped out where she could. She squinted, and blinked sweat out of her eyes. She stabbed and hacked at anything that threatened her. Cass felt someone grab her arm while she ran. She yelped and pulled out her dagger from her boot, holding it in front of her protectively.

"Calm down," said the figure who had grabbed her. He yanked her down behind a giant rock, protected from the war in front of them. To tell the truth, Cass was grateful for the break.

Light shone on the figure's face, and Cass recognized it immediately. "Poseidon," she greeted.

Poseidon noted the lack of formality, but let it slide. This was war. "Cassandra."

Cass shivered at her full name, but Poseidon only raised his eyebrows. Two could play at this game. "What do you want, Lord Poseidon," she asked, emphasizing the 'Lord'.

"I wanted to speak to you about the prophecy,"

"It would be best if you spoke to my father," said Cass, wondering where her father was. She hadn't seen him yet. "It was his prophecy, not mine."

"But you have your opinions on it, no?"

Cass grinned slowly, and her teeth gleamed slightly in the darkness. "You worried about it? Gods can't die, the prophecy is speaking figuratively." She remembered what Annabeth had said, about the gods dieing. She wished she hadn't lied to them. She wished she had told them the truth.

"About what?" the god asked, and Cass squirmed uncomfortably. "You know," the old god insisted.

Cass looked Poseidon right in the face. Her green eyes born onto his, and she felt a shiver go up her spine. "I don't."

Poseidon didn't lower his gaze, and Cass broke under pressure. "It means... the gods will be sentenced to Tartarus by Kronos."

"But only if he wins?" asked Poseidon, unfazed by this.

Cass shook her head. "The only way for the war to end is for the gods to be imprisoned. Think about it; monsters keep reforming, and every time a demi-god dies, they rejoin us to fight in death. I know that the war hasn't been on for long, Gods, it just started, but I know that neither side will show signs of slowing. Both sides want this more then anything. This has to happen."

A loud yell came from their right, and both the god and the demi-god looked over. There stood Nico. Cass gasped. He must of followed her. Below him, a young daughter of Athena, laying splayed out on the ground. Annabeth stood next to him, sobbing over her sister, but holding Cass's knife in front of her loosely. Hair hung in her eyes, and stuck to the tears on her cheeks. A giant monster stood in front of them.

"You dare touch a daughter of Athena?" Nico bellowed, loud enough for all to hear. His face was screwed up in concentration and pain. "You dare kill her?"

He had his sword drawn and he fought the beast dead in a matter of seconds. Cass and Poseidon watched on with a mix of pride and admiration and fear.

"I should go," said Cass after a minute. "They need me out there."

"I'm sure."

"They need you too," Cass rushed to say, but Poseidon silenced her.

"We need each other. All of us."

Cass nodded and ran out into the battle, to Annabeth and Nico. She stopped a bit, biting her lip. "I'm sorry, Annabeth," she said, not really knowing what else to say. She had never had a sibling die on her before, because archers were always away from danger. But not here. With a pang, she wondered whether or not her brothers would make it this time.

Annabeth nodded slowly, wiping tears from her eyes. Poseidon had rose from behind the rock, and gently, he picked up the little daughter of Athena, who Nico recognized as Sandy Johnson, who was only eleven, and lifted her behind the rock he had just been behind. Annabeth inhaled shakily, like she always did after she cried. "Thank you," she whispered to Poseidon.

The god nodded to her. "We'll get her after. I'll let Athena know." Annabeth gave him a small, tight, closed-lipped smile. Poseidon looked at the three demi-gods and then flashed out.

Annabeth took a few deep breaths. "Why don't take a minute with Sandy over there. Catch up with us later," suggested Cass, and Annabeth nodded slowly, and didn't wipe off the rest of her tears. The daughter of Athena went behind the rock and slowly kissed her sisters cheeks and looked sadly and the hole in her stomach. She bent over her and Cass and Nico saw her tears come harder.

"She'll be alright. Just give her a minute," said Nico, swinging his sword and taking out an Empousai. Another one took her place, and Nico fought it off while Cass shot arrow after arrow into the crowd of monsters that loomed forward.

"I guess you'd know, wouldn't you?" asked Cass, reaching into her left boot, far down, and pulling out a small capsule.

Nico turned to face her; Cass ducked to avoid his sword when it swung her way. "Yeah."

Cass felt she had unearthed a touchy subject, so she just nodded and stuffed the capsule into her pocket for later.

"Hey. What is that anyway?" asked Nico.

Cass took careful aim and shot, feeling the vibration of the sting go up her arm. "The thing I put in my pocket?" Nico nodded and took a few seconds keeping one of the Keres sisters busy. The three Keres sisters were spirits of cruel death, but as a son of Hades, Nico handled them pretty well. Cass continued. "It's a bomb," she said like it was some big secret. And it kind of was.

"A bomb?"

"Yeah. Brett made it for me. Hephaestus cabin has been working on these suckers for a while now. They wanted them to be ready for the second Titan war, but it didn't work."

"Are they powerful?" asked Nico, swiping at an enemy hell-hound, knowing that Mrs. O'Leary was safe at Camp Half-Blood.

"Hades, yeah, I'd like to think so," said Cass.

And then Katie ran by, Travis and Conner following closely behind her. With her sword-free hand, she waved to Cass and Nico. "Come on, Thalia IM'd me. They need some help over by the pit."

Nico looked to Cass. She waved Annabeth over and she came, and the three of them ran after Travis and Conner.

They weaved in and out of demi-gods fighting for their lives. Conner slowed a bit and let the others catch up. "Glad to see your alive," he said to them.

"Us too," replied Cass. As she ran, she slung her bow over her chest and snatched her hunting knives from her boots. All of this was executed with the speed and precision of a well practiced routine. "What kind of monster is it?"

Travis looked behind him for a split second. "Manticore. Dr. Thorn. Have fun with that Annabeth."

Everyone knew about Annabeth and the Manticore. It was as famous a legend around camp as Perseus and Andromeda. Annabeth looked a bit worried, but more then anything, she looked pissed off. As she ran, she fingered the gray strand in her hair, her badge of honor, her prize for holding up the sky. Anyone knew an angry Annabeth was a bad thing. But an angry Annabeth with her best friend in a Titan, her sister dead and fighting in the third Titan war was something to avoid all together.

And then they were back to the edge of the pit, but more to the left. Arrows came up from the pit all the time, with monsters beginning to climb them, but most of them were sliced off before the beasts were half-way up.

Thalia was there, an arrow trained at a man in a long beige trench coat. He kept his head kind of low down, but everyone could see his one blue eye and one brown one. Something moved behind the man, from underneath his trench coat. His tail.

Annabeth held her dagger out in front of her and charged, and no one held her back. Why would they? She wanted to fight, and they needed her to. Thalia released her arrow, but the Manticore dodged it. Annabeth swung her dagger around haphazardly, so he couldn't touch her. Along with Thalia, Katie, Travis, Conner, Cass and Nico, they made a oval shape around him, so he couldn't escape.

Dr. Thorn looked up and grinned at Annabeth. She growled at him. It was obvious that neither had forgotten each other. The Manticore swung around, and his tail slid next to the feet of the demi-gods, it's poisonous spikes sparkling in the darkness.

"JUMP!" yelled Katie, and they all jumped when the tail came around, like one messed-up version of a child's jump rope game.

Cass leaned over and whispered into Thalia's ear, and they played the game of telephone around until everyone knew the plan. Cass reached into her pocket and fingered the small purple bomb capsule. She prayed to Hephaestus that it would work, the popped the top off. They had a ten second window. "RUN!" she yelled, and the demi-gods scattered, fell to the ground, and covered their ears.

An ear-shattering blast came from where the Manticore had been. All that was left of him now was monster dust and a long trench coat. Half of the monsters in a ten foot radius had vanished, too, the demi-gods that had been fighting them, sitting down, having been blown back from the blast.

Thalia and Annabeth nodded at the pile of dust, then took off to the left, while Kate and Travis and Conner went to the right. Cass and Nico were alone again, and in the center of monsters.

"Two Q's?" asked Nico over the roar of the monsters.

"Duck!" Cass screamed, and the two of them slid to the ground in perfect harmony. A volley of arrows filled the sky, and they missed the daughter of the sun and son of the dead by mere inches. He helped her up, then stabbed a giant, keeping him busy for a minute while Cass killed it.

"What did you say?" she asked, pushing the few strands of sweaty hair that hadn't been cut properly out of her face.

"Two Q's. I'll let you go first."

She grabbed his hand tightly and extended as far as she could reach over the pit, slicing a rope and watching with satisfaction the monsters fall back down, down to the bottom. Her hand was slippery and Nico feared he would dropped her, so he pulled her up as quick as he could.

"Two Q's?" she asked when he pulled her upright again, and he nodded.

She looked into the crowd, watching the battle with interest. "Okay. Why in Hades are you asking me this now?" She tightened, then added: "Boost!"

Nico looked around quickly before he made a step with his hands and Cass jumped off of them, kicking a monster onto her brother's sword.

"Not fair," Nico panted when she landed gracefully on the ground, her knife up in front of her face protectively. "Only I can answer that question."

"Yes," said Cass, breaking the neck of a humanoid monster with her round-house kick, the one she'd been perfecting for weeks. "And I'd like you to."

"I wanted to play the game," he answered.

"This is no time for a game," she growled.

"This is all a game!" Nico yelled fiercely, reminding Cass that he was right.

Cass swallowed. "Your turn."

"What are the chances-" he started. An arrow flew in between them, separating them. Cass turned and slid on the dirt, stopping underneath a giant. She kicked him and he jumped, letting Nico run his sword in him. Giant blood fell on Cass's hair, and she shook it out along with the dust that came with it.

"What are the chances of what?" She yanked her bow off her chest, letting her knife fall to the ground, and grabbed an arrow. She pulled back and released.

"The chances of me kissing you." Nico knew it was a long shot. He really did. But the rush of adrenaline in him was too much, he was on a complete natural high.

Cass stopped in the midst of re-firing. "What?" Her chest heaved.

"You heard me," said Nico, a former confidence gone, all that was left behind was a shy thirteen year old standing in front of a blood and sweat covered girl, declaring, rather badly, his love to her.

Cass was breathing hard. "I'd say they were good. Really good."

"Me too."

Nico leaned forward and kissed her. She tasted of sweat and dirt and that strawberry stuff she used in her hair, even thought she hadn't showered in a week. Nico pulled back quickly, his heart racing, looking right into her big green eyes. But Cass wasn't looking at him. She was looking in the direction of the pit.

"Gods help us," she said.

"What? Was that not good?"

"No, no. That was good. It's Kronos."

Nico pushed Cass away from him; she was standing quiet close. He looked at the pit, and he licked his lips nervously. They tasted like Cass. In front of him, barely twenty feet away, was a cloud of black fog and mist, gathering dramatically around two figures. One was tall, with only two things about it sticking out. Bright green eyes, and a glowing scythe. The other was female, you could tell by the shadow of her billowing hair. She had eyes with flecks of gold in them, and she was holding a glowing gold sword. They walked through the fog and mist, the monsters still coming around and walking slowly. It was Kronos and Andra.

**Happy New Year! After January seventh, when I go back to school, I'll be preparing for mid-terms, so I won't be able to update as much, so, during the winter break I'll be writing as much as I can.**


	23. Chapter 22

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter 22

You know how in movies, when the evil guy steps out of the fog and mist, and all of the sudden, everything is quiet, and both sides stop what ever they're doing to stare at this epic display of evil? Nico eyed the two people. It was like that, but real life. No one to yell 'Cut!' when they were about to die. The blood on him wasn't make up. It was real. The bones were actually broken. The weapons weren't plastic, they were real and could wound and kill.

All of the underworld had fallen silent. Cass, who stood less then a foot away from him, breathed in and out without a sound, her chest pumping and her mouth open slightly and her breath hot on his face. Even sweaty and tired she smelled good; it must had been a girl thing. Nico hated himself for sounding so much like a son of Aphrodite. Nico blinked and the kiss rewound in his head and played again. He hadn't even had time to be embarrassed. He was sure there would be time for that later.

Kronos raised the scythe, and everyone tensed, watching the Time Lord's every move, hypnotized by it's slow descent. The scythe swung in the air, deadly beautiful. Silent awe descended upon everyone as the golden weapon slammed to the ground, creating a large crack in the dirt, splitting the ground, almost to where Nico was standing.

Cass turned to him, and he wondered why she was moving so slowly. And then it hit him. Kronos had slowed time. The Titan and his daughter moved quickly past some monsters; even their own troops had fallen under the spell. Nico moved sluggishly towards Cass, placing his slow and weary body in front of her. He had learned from Annabeth what it was like to lose someone you love. Nico didn't want that feeling.

But Kronos wasn't walking towards Cass and Nico. He was walking towards the gods. The two brushed past Nico, and he watched them go. Andra didn't look at him, but he saw her eyes. They were gold. Too gold. More so then they had been before. And speaking of eyes, every demi-god frozen in time on the battle field was watching Kronos's eyes. _They looked so familiar,_ they whispered in slow motion, their voices stretching out and sounding deeper. _Why aren't they gold?_ And then they remembered their older brothers and sisters coming back from the meeting and telling them about Kronos's plan. They were Percy's eyes. Those pretty green. Some described them as emerald. Some as Sea-Green. Jasmine. Olive. Like the sea on a sunny day. They were trusting. But on Kronos, they managed to look evil. Dark. Controlling.

Even the gods were under the layer of time. Annabeth recalled Selina, right before the second Titan war, telling her about the layers of magic for slowing time. How it was harder to slow demi-gods, and near impossible with gods. She marveled at the amount of power the Titan had to be using. When he walked past her, at a speed that was impossible for her at that moment, she felt his pulsing power. More powerful then before. She closed her eyes. He was stronger. A lot stronger. How much power had Percy given him?

The Titan had reached the first god. Athena. She stood there strongly, and Annabeth felt a burst of pride of her godly mother, who stood so brave against the Titan, so he knew she wouldn't go without a fight. But even the goddess was no match for him. He laughed at her slowly executed moves, and desperate attempts. Kronos pointed his large, black, index finger and pressed it to the goddesses forehead. Athena struggled, but she became completely immobile. She pushed against the Titan's power, but to no avail. Athena breathed faster and faster as she stood, all of the other gods watching her, along with the demi-gods, creatures and monsters on both sides. She didn't want to go to Tartarus. She had seen what had happened to Perseus, in only a few days. Gods knew how long she would be there; even immortals could be tortured.

Kronos went around slowly, touching each of the Olympians on the forehead, and rendering the useless. Andra followed him around like a little puppy, looking up to her father admiringly and shooting the gods dirty looks. The slowed down screams from the gods children filled the underworld; no spell of time could stop a child's pleas for their mom and dad.

Nico considered himself lucky, as his father was not one of the Olympians, so his father was not immobile in a clump with the rest of the gods. What made his heart break was Cass, her tears rolling down her face slowly. She was the definition of sad. She didn't shout out like all the others, but you could see her hurt, you didn't need to hear it.

And then there was a golden flash, and time returned to normal. The gods were gone. Then Kronos flashed out, taking Andra with him. In the complete silence, Nico swore after them, and Cass lifted up her middle finger, showing the extent of her rage.

The monsters turned to them and grinned wickedly, the time spell no longer having any effect. The demi-gods looked around nervously; lost without their parents there to guide them. Nico remembered the powerful feeling the Annabeth had described during the battle of Olympus. The hope it had given them. It was worth a shot. He looked to Cass, who nodded. Together, they raised their weapons and shouted, "For the Gods! For Olympus!"

There was a loud echo, every demi-god, minor god, cyclopes, satyr, dryad, and god that had been left behind yelling in response. "For the Gods! For Olympus!"

The fighting, it seemed, had gotten more intense. There was more at stake. Those who didn't know Percy fought with twice the strength. Now it was personal. Nico and Cass pushed their way away from the pit. It was strenuous work, but they managed to do it, killing monsters as they went.

"Funny thing about war," breathed Cass as they fought towards their friends. "Is that, in mortal war, you can a damned bullet in the hand and you're home free, with the honor of being a veteran." She ducked the blow of an enemy sword, and plunged her dagger into it with a look of vengeance on her face. "But here, you get shot in the hand, tough luck, 'cause you still gotta hold a sword or shoot a bow. There's no leave. No holidays home. How come we, the kids of fricken' Gods, have to endure this..."

Nico could tell that she was itching to swear, but Cass never swore. It was like she was physically impossible. Even flipping someone the middle finger made her feel guilty, unless they really deserved it in her mind.

"Crap," she finished, sticking her dagger through one of her belt loops. She put her hands into a fist, making sure to put her thumb outside, like Clarisse taught her, and swung at the face of a monster, then backing away quickly before it remembered that it was large, with mauling capabilities. Nico stuck his sword into the monsters stomach, and then marveled at her.

"Where'd you learn to do that?"

"Fourteen years and counting at Camp Half-Blood. You can only do archery for so long. Same with swordsmanship, and Ancient Greek. I even tried French, but it was Hades on the eyes. So I asked Clarisse to teach me. Thought it would come in handy."

"You asked Clarisse for a favor?"

"She owes me one. Long story. It was about three years ago." Cass was breathing heavily, and two pink spots had emerged on her cheeks, the kind of pink that mortal girls would try and create out of loads of make-up to give themselves that flushed look. That kind of crap was what made Nico wonder if those teen girls had any idea about the world. Cass's was totally natural, and to him, it looked a thousand times better. More...original, if that was a good word for it.

Nico didn't question further. He would have, but the butt of a sword slammed into his chest and pushed on his ribs, causing him to fall to the ground, having had the wind knocked out of him. Cass turned to the monster, fists ready, a little too eager. But she backed off when she saw what had hit him. Nico rolled backward on his back, and then used his legs and momentum to flip himself back up in a move only demi-gods and dancers could master.

He had landed the other way, and only turned when Cass jabbed his stomach with her elbow. He turned and his chocolate brown eyes widened significantly. Standing in front of them was Stheno.

Every Greek demi-god knows of Stheno. She had two sisters, and one, Medusa, was better known, and Euryale was known for her screams, but it was Stheno that frightened naughty demi-gods to go to bed early. Of the three sisters, each more murderous the last, Stheno was the eldest and the one to look out for. She had red snakes curling down her shoulders like hair, with brass hands holding tightly to a beautifully engraved sword, with words on it that seemed to move and flow to the same rhythm as her hair. She was known for having killed more men then either of her sisters combined.

Stheno was able to do this because of her beauty. She was more beautiful then Aphrodite, but in a more evil and fierce way. Her long, sharp fangs gently pressed into her blood-red lips. She looked twenty, and she had a talent similar to both Aphrodite and Medusa. One look into her eyes, and you would fall under her command. You would do anything for her, both men and women, and when she was done with you, she killed you. Her eyes were rumored to be purple and gold, flaming like Hestia's and Ares, but with as much power as Zeus's. Of course, no one had ever lived to tell anyone the color.

"Don't look in her eyes," hissed Cass, but alas, it was too late. Nico already had his sword at her neck, and his eyes were glazed over. Stheno regarded then with a laugh. Cass trembled, but squeezed her eyes closed tightly. Stheno's thin hand crept onto her face, and she tilted Cass's chin up higher. Cass felt one of the snakes slither over her cheek, and she whimpered. Chiron had told her stories about Stheno's snakes eating the eyes open on prisoners who were unwilling.

With her free hand, slowly, she reached to her belt loop, where she dagger sill hung loosely. She was lucky it hadn't fallen out. Cass grasped it and tilted it slowly from side to side, hoping the black sun would reflect into a friends eyes. Her lips started to move in a prayer to her father, but with a desperate inner sigh, she remembered that he was gone, to Gods know where. Instead, she prayed to Hades.

There was no answer. Cass wasn't one to freak out about most things, but the snakes were hissing uncontrollably, and Stheno was whispered to her, "They're hungry. My baby's are hungry." and Nico hadn't removed the sword from her neck. Instead, he was pressing it a bit harder, causing a bit of blood to spill onto the silver sword, and causing Cass to feel a bit light headed.

Then there was the sound of galloping. Cass knew that sound. It was the four beat sound of hooves. Of a centaur. She sighed in relief. Chiron was there. The sound of an arrow being released rang in her ears. The arrow landed near her. Then the sword was released from her neck. Cass kept her eyes shut as she felt two large hands grab her sides and lift her onto the back of a horse. Or centaur. Cass wasn't sure, but she was positive that it was Chiron, or, at least, someone friendly. They had, after all, saved her.

Cass held on as the thing she was on moved quickly. It wasn't her first time riding on a centaur, if, in fact, it was a centaur. She didn't want to fall off, as she could tell that they were moving quickly. After a while, they stopped, and Cass figured it was safe to open her eyes.

In front of her was a centaur, definitely, but he was the opposite of Chiron. He was clean-shaven, with long, flowing black hair and black fur. He had a thick, broad back, and gold eyes that were like Kronos's, but so different, so much nicer.

"Who are you?" Cass managed to stutter, looking around. They were near a river in the underworld, but not a river Cass had seen or heard of before.

"I am Nessus, ferryman for the river Euenus. This is my river," said the centaur, waving his hand towards the river. Unlike the Styx or the Lethe, it looked like a normal river. "The river of nothing. To cross you need not a boat, but I provide one anyway."

Cass furrowed her brow. "Why not?"

"My river is an inconvenience. As am I. It is only something spirits must cross to reach the Iles of Blest. Just an obstacle they need to overcome."

Cass nodded, and then a question came to her mind. "Could you look at her? Stheno?"

Nessus nodded, and Cass licked her lips and continued. "Did you see what happened to..."

"The young lad? A friend of yours? I'm sorry, lass, but he's gone. Went with her, I suppose. There's no way in Hades you'll be seeing him again."

**Sorry, but I had to do that. I hate it too, but it's important. Only one or two more chapters, and then this one will be done.**


	24. Chapter 23

A Whole New Beginning

Chapter 23

Nessus watched Cass walk back in the direction of the fighting. He had offered her a ride, but she insisted of walking. "I need some time to think, " she'd said. Nessus hadn't objected.

The old centaur sighed. He had seen many a war, and knew that young love was often ripped apart by fighting, both psychically and emotionally. He had experience. Of all the people he'd seen going through the same thing, Cass had handled it remarkably well. She hadn't cried or shouted at him. She had only taken the information quietly. Nessus had warned her not to do anything stupid, but Cass had only laughed. "This whole this whole thing is stupid anyway," she'd said. "Me doing something to contribute to that won't really change anything.

As the girls shadow slowly disappeared, Nessus pulled out a small chain from underneath his shirt. He opened it, and saw a beautiful smile, and long brown hair. Brown eyes full of happiness and joy. She had been a beautiful centaur. Ligeia. Her name meant peace; but her life had been the opposite. Nessus closed his eyes, and though back a thousand years, and then more, to when he had accepted his job. The real reason. To find Ligeia.

Cass walked. And then she ran. Her legs were strong, and they carried her over the ragged landscape of the underworld quickly. The sweat that covered her body was cooling, and she shivered as she ran, even in the intense heat. She breathed quickly, in and out, in and out, her lungs burning, and her feet aching in her uncomfortable combat boots.

She had no idea how long she had been running, but finally, she reached the battle. Nessus's river had been in one of the most remote corners of the underworld, and the fighting was so central, that she was sure that she had been gone almost the whole day.

When Cass got back, the campers were in an ever worse state then when she had left. Those demi-gods still able to fight were fighting three to one with monsters twice their size. The skeleton soldiers were gone, maybe they disappeared when Nico, prince of ghosts, did too. Minor gods were running all over the place offering help, nectar, and ambrosia, and her demi-god brothers and Aphrodite were racing all over the make-shift infirmary, along with her immortal brother, Asclepius, the minor god of medicine and healing. Cass went there first.

"Where were you?" asked Brian as Cass knelt next to a young, unconscious son of Ares.

"With Nessus," Cass replied nonchalantly, her heart pounding. She felt the twelve-year-old boys forehead, then lay her head on his chest, listened to his heart-beat and frowned. "What happened to him?"

"Blast from your damned bomb," said Josh, hurrying past with a bucket of water. He set it down next to a daughter of Aphrodite, who immediately full-filled her position as a nurse and dipped a cloth into it. She placed it gently on one of her siblings foreheads. "Nessus? The immortal centaur dude? Why?"

"He rescued me from Stheno," said Cass. "Any brain damage done to him?"

Brian shook his head. "Stheno? She'd joined Kronos? Gods."

"I know," replied Cass, motioning to a eleven-year-old son of Hermes, who had a cast on his arm. "Watch him," she instructed the boy. "When he wakes up, let me or Brian know." The little boy nodded and sat down crossed-legged, looking out over the battle safely from behind the barriers. Cass wiped her hands on her jean shorts. "She took Nico."

Josh stopped what he was doing. "Oh, Gods, I'm sorry Cass. I know you liked him."

Cass nodded slowly. "He kissed me," she said, tears finally leaking out. Angrily, she wiped at them. "But that's not important now." She turned her attention to an arrow in Conner's arm. For once, he didn't ask her out or hit on her. Instead, he patted her arm and smiled at her.

Annabeth ran in, her breathing loud and tired sounding. She had been swiped on the leg and on her forehead, but, other then that, she was unharmed. "Can you spare anyone?" she asked hurriedly, and Cass looked out across the barrier and the sea of monsters fighting the few demi-gods left.

"Gods," she breathed. "Is that the..."

"Minotaur," answered Annabeth. Cass looked to her, and saw how tired she was. She braid was no longer tied back by an elastic, but by sweat and blood, and there were dark circles under her eyes. "Good time, too. The last of Nike cabin was just wiped out. Only three survived and they're coming in." As if on her cue, three of minor gods ran in, each with a injured son or daughter of Nike in their arms.

Cass looked at them worriedly. "I shouldn't go," she said. "We don't have enough people."

"Cass, we need you out there, please," Annabeth begged. Cass looked out across again. There were only a few demi-gods that she could see, an they were all surrounded by monsters. She bit her lip and looked to Josh.

"Go," he said. "I'll tell Brian. You're the best fighter in here, and we'll lose even worse it you don't go help." Josh smiled at her, and Cass tried to return it, but it seemed impossible to make her lips move that way.

"Are there anymore arrows?" she asked, and Josh shook his head 'no'. Cass sighed and pulled her bow and quiver off her chest. "Watch these for me, okay?" she asked him, and Josh nodded. Cass looked around one last time, and grabbed a piece of bungee rope, brightly colored in orange and red. "You never know," she said to Annabeth as she hooked it around her shoulder.

She and Annabeth hurried out of the infirmary, and into battle. "I heard what happened," said Annabeth once they were half-way there. "Travis saw the whole thing. I'm sorry. I really am."

Cass nodded, then grabbed her hinting knives. She twisted them in her hands. "Could we not talk about that now?"

"Sure," said Annabeth, wrapping her hand around Cass's dagger.

Soon, they came to the Minotaur. Most of the other monsters were clearly the space, letting the demi-gods get a clear shot at the part bull, part man monster. The Minotaur worked alone.

There were only about thirty demi-gods there, and Cass realized with a sigh that these demi-gods were the only ones left. Among them were Thalia, Travis, Katie, Clarisse, Chris, Malcolm, and some other sons and daughters of the Olympians, maybe ten or so more. Then rest were kids of minor gods, but their parents weren't there. They were tending to the wounded, gathering them up, or fining the dead.

The Minotaur roared, and most of the demi-gods reared back in fright. Monsters booed at them jokingly as they created a circle around them.

"Let me take him," roared Clarisse, raising her spear.

"No," Cass hook her head. "I've gotta plan. Clarisse, just distract him best you can. Everyone else, just try and wound it. I think I can do this. Annabeth, wait for my signal."

Thalia shrugged. "Well, it's better then anything we've got. Go for it, Summers."

The demi-gods fanned out. Clarisse waved her spear in the air, catching it's attention. "Wait," Annabeth warned the other demi-gods quietly, as she watched Cass creep around to the Minotaur's back. "NOW!" she yelled when Cass gave her the signal. The demi-gods charged, looks of fury on their faces, as if this one monster could end the war for them. Weapons out, they cried battle cries and shouted with rage as the hacked and stabbed at the Minotaurs thick legs. Clarisse waved her spear and shouted at the Minotaur, some meaningless junk that seemed to make it really mad.

Cass crouched behind the Minotaur. She figured she'd have about a ten second window, so she'd have to be fast. Cass tied the rope expertly into a lasso and waved it round once, twice, three times. "You're crazy," was what she heard from Annabeth before she let go and let the rope fly up and into the sky. Cass crossed her fingers, knowing she only had one shot. With a sigh of relief, she saw that the rope had landed around one of the Minotaurs horns. And thus began her ten seconds.

Gripping the rope tightly, Cass ran and jumped, paying to whoever would listen that the rope and horn would hold her weigh. Cass closed her eyes and pretended that she was climbing the rock wall and camp. One step at a time, she got closer to the Minotaur's head. By now, the ugly monster had realized Cass was on him.

He twisted from side to side, trying to flip her off, but Cass held tight to the rope, and, occasionally, to the monsters back hair whenever she lost her grip on the bungee rope. After an agonizing minute of being tossed around, Cass was at the Minotaur's shoulders. _Almost there,_ she thought. And then Cass climbed onto the head.

With her hunting knife in one hand, Cass moved slowly and carefully around the head of the Minotaur. Positioning herself above the monsters eyes, Cass plunged the dagger into the left eye, and, without a second thought, jumped off. As she flew through the air, the Minotaur disintegrated into dust behind her, the dust falling to the ground. Cass fell to the ground as well. She managed to land okay, she sort of ran once she hit the ground, and then skid and slid on her back. She popped up and shook dirt and monster dust from herself. "That was fun," she said.

A growl from behind her caused Cass to turn around. She gasped. The monsters, now that the Minotaur was dead, or, at least, stuck in Tartarus for a while, were crowding around them, advancing on them like birds of prey. The demi-gods left created a circle, their backs in the center of it. They held out weapons fiercely. They were each tired, but they didn't let their fatigue show in their fighting. Some reached out to a person beside them and grabbed their hand. Some people bumped the shoulder of their neighbor in a friendly way. Some just stared at the monsters, as the crowd of them looming in front of the half-bloods constantly got bigger.

As if on cue, the demi-gods began to sped out, shooting forward to strike, and then retreat to the safety of numbers. Katie held her sword in front of her like a shield, never actually doing any damage, but directing the blow in another direction. Travis protected her, not wanting to lose her, loving her like Nico did to Cass, like Percy did to Annabeth. They were a family, and they protected each other like a family. They fought through the monsters in groups, never leaving a demi-god behind. There were no archers in the group; all of the arrows had run out while Cass had been with Nessus, so every fighter able to fight was out with a dagger or sword of spear. Even the younger ones, who had been placed in the infirmary for protection reasons, had found spears, and were throwing them as a team, taking almost three young half-bloods to throw one of the twenty pound spear far enough. Only half of the actually pierced monsters, but no one cared. They were helping.

They fought through the hoards of monsters like it was fog, cutting through it easily, with little resistance. The monsters seemed to be tiring, too, although Cass didn't think it was possible. Thalia had her shield out, and every monster who came across it reared back and didn't come near her again.

"Where are Hades and Hestia?" shouted Thalia from behind her shield, to anyone who was close enough to hear.

"They're gathering nature spirits from up above," said Annabeth.

"They brought Grover with them too, he was next in line for the position of God of the Wild," said Katie as she swung her sword and created a fountain of dust. She had a cut on her forehead, and the blood dripped down slowly, into her eyes.

"Really?" asked Thalia, using her dagger to keep monsters at bay. "Good for him."

"Really good for him," said Cass, ducking a blow and popping up again to hit and kill a serpent-like monster. "I wish I was him. Then I'd be there instead of here."

"Don't we all wish that?" called out Travis from somewhere in the crowd.

"Hey Annabeth?" When this is all over," said Cass, pointing with her dagger to the battle around them. "We're gonna have to go fight Kronos and Andra. It just never stops, does it?"

"That's if we get out," said a daughter of Hermes on her left. "Maria was walking around with some of the minor gods, to check near the ferry entrance for survivors. They've got monsters guarding up there. No souls are getting in or out right now, dead or alive."

"Gods, can't we get a break?" yelled Thalia to the sky. There was a thin layer of sweat beads on her forehead and she had a cut on her arm, right below a scar that was still healing, probably from the war they'd had only weeks before.

"No pain, no gain," a voice rang from inside the heart of the battle, and her there was a cry of support.

"Give it everything you've got, troops," said Cass, tapping the camo hat that, surprisingly, was still on head after everything. "This is what we're made for."


	25. Epilouge

A Whole New Beginning

Epilogue

After three weeks of vigorous fighting, the war was over. In late October, the Minor Gods and demi-gods won a fight for Olympus.

There was no celebration. No after-party. Only a sad return home to Camp, which remained untouched, a save haven.

Of the nine hundred soldiers brought with the Gods to fight in the war, there were only fifty demi-gods, ten sayters, twelve cyclopes, and the two hundred minor gods. Only two hundred and seventy two survivors. The number was hopelessly small.

No cabin was left untouched; every single survivor had a loved one gone, lost to a monster's sword and cold-blooded heart.

The week after was used as rest, time to heal all wounds, even the ones no one could see. Camp was quiet, because no one wanted to speak. Annabeth had lost five siblings, Cass had lost two. No orange T-shirts were worn, it was all the black they could find, taking comfort in the mortal custom for the dead.

There was a fire burning at all times, a long row of coals burning for days on end, bodies placed on the red hot coals lovingly. Never were the sides of the flames empty, there were always mourners. For that week, there were no lessons.

But they were all worried. Because it was far from over. The gods were gone. Percy was still trapped in the Titan. The solstice had yet to arrive.

They demi-gods took comfort in their week. Because they all knew that it would be their last week to rest. Because more was coming. A war, bigger then anything. The end of the world as they knew it. It was coming.

**So here it is, final chapter for A Whole New Beginning.**

**I just wanted to let you in on some info for this book and the next two.**

**#1. The titles. They all have a symbolic meaning for the books. This one is the new beginning of new heroes, and new wars. The other two would give the stories away, but you'll find out later.**

**#2. I'm starting Setting Sun right away. I already have the first draft ready, and it should be up in a day or two.**

**#3. I'd really like more reviews for the next one, 'cause they give me hope for my writing.**

**Thanks for reading, enjoy.**


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